Review of Chasing Amy (1997) by Gino V — 17 Jun 2011

Where to begin? Yes, at its core, the theme of letting the "right one" slip away, because of petty jealousy is something that most of us can relate to. But the way it's executed here is just...less than convincing. The whole setup of the relationship here feels like just that: something set up in a script. I'm not sure if it was something in the dialog, the way situations played out, the plot twists, or some combination thereof, but ultimately this just felt artificial to me. Or maybe I'm just weird, in that I don't think knowing that my girlfriend had previously had a three-way would bother me all that much. Certainly not anywhere near as much as it gets under the main character's skin. Either way, it just didn't work for me.

I may have been a bit kinder to this film, if not for another thing: Joey Lauren Adams' voice. I visibly cringed when she uttered her first line, and when it became clear that she was going to be a main character, I think I actually turned to my girlfriend, and said something like "Oh gods, no." It may seem superficial to complain about something like this, but when one of the stars of the movie has a voice like a rusty knife being dragged across a chalkboard by a hyperactive child (particularly when she yells), that becomes a problem. It turned certain exchanges of dialog that were already hard to swallow into downright unpleasant stretches of screen time.

There are far worse movies out there, but I just don't see why something that happened back in high school should turn someone into a jealous moron, when they're in an otherwise happy relationship. Thus, a major plot point utterly fails for me. Your mileage may vary.