Review of Some Girls (1988) by Ernie L — 17 Jun 2008

Some Girls is one of those rare little movies that are so often swept under the carpet by studios.

This movie has a odd history and has been mostly ignored by critics and fans.

I saw it first late one night many years ago and luckily saved it to VHS so I could share it with others.

At first I was attracted to it for the ever lovely Jennifer Connelly, but soon realized it was full of other little treasures.

This is a simple story of a boy, Michael (Patrick Dempsey) going to his recent ex-girlfriend's, Gabbie (Jennifer Connelly) house in Toronto for the Christmas Holidays.

He doesn't really know why he has been invited, but hopes it is to get back together.

He meets the odd cast of characters that make up her family.

Her 2 lovely sisters (Sheila Kelley and Ashley Greenfield) and the haughty mysterious mother (Florinda Bolkan).

Probably the most famous actor in the movie is Andre Gregory, of "My Dinner With Andre" fame, as the Father.

The thing about this movie is that the love story doesn't work, in fact it is never supposed to work.

Instead we experience the main character's confusion as he attempts to figure out the mysterious actions of this girl who broke his heart.

This is a movie for men who feel lost in the mystery that is "woman", and in the end we find the wisdom of the father who states you could live with his wife or any of his daughters for a hundred years and never really know them, and yet this is no reason to walk away.

He is happy to simply be allowed to share a life with these mysterious females.

I have met women like this, and have experienced that exact emotion.

Women with this quality rarely acknowledge it and are most often completely oblivious to the effect they have over men.

While the main love story is doomed from the start, a new love story happens in a very odd way when we meet Granny, played by the amazing veteran Russian actress Lila Kedrova.

Check her out on imdb sometime.

What a history.

She steals every scene she is in, and when she is being warmed up at the fire by Patrick Dempsey in the lodge after she has been wandering in the snow for days, in her semi-delusional state she keep mistaking Patrick Dempsey for her long dead husband , also called Michael, and launches into several breahtaking speeches about the love of her life.

The entire movie is worth watching just for her.

At the end of the movie we learn that the real love story was between Granny and her long dead husband, but Patrick Dempsey gets to taste just a hint of what that love was like, and it matures him to the point where he can finally accept the truth of Gabbie's feeling for him.

This movie has been ignored for a long time.

It reappeared briefly when Jennifer Connelly's star rose to prominence after "A Beautiful Mind", and again more recently with Patrick Dempsey's renewed career from TV's "Gray's Anatomy".

Sheila Kelly went on to a decent film career, but Ashley Greenfield disappeared after this.

I hope more people will see this movie and appreciate it for what it is.

Not a silly teen sex comedy, but instead homage to lovely mysterious women.

I had never heard of Lila Kedrova until his movie, and wish more of her movies were available.