Nothing really happens. It’s almost completely character-driven, as opposed to plot-driven. This film somehow resisted the impulse to “go to the plot”. They probably just figured: This movie’s not gonna be a blockbuster anyway, let’s not try to make it one. Let’s stay with the characters – see where they go.
By the end of the film, each of these three people are a little bit changed by their encounters with one another.
I have never seen Danny Devito in such a deeply connected part. It’s hard to describe what he actually does, and why he is so moving. We all know he can be hilarious – but there are moments, brief flashes in this film, when an expression will flicker in and out of his eyes – that is so painful, so filled with loss, that I almost wanted to turn away. But he doesn’t make a big deal out of it, like a lot of actors do (when they’re behaving like ACTORS and not like PEOPLE). Danny Devito does not want us to be impressed with how much pain his character is in. He spends most of the movie trying to AVOID that pain, trying to de-focus, trying to fill up the hole – like we all do in life.
It is a wonderful wonderful performance.
And Holly Hunter is stunning. She plays a perfectly coiffed Upper East Side divorcee – a kind of role I have never seen her attempt. Totally repressed, hair in a perfect upsweep at all times … yet underneath the surface … there is all this – I don’t even want to call it just pain, because there’s more going on. Turbulence. Psychic stress. Sexual explosiveness.
The title of the movie is the giveaway.
Whatever she might feel – ecstasy, grief, rage, sexual desire – everything is submerged under the cool exterior. Nothing is lived out loud.
The movie is her journey towards living a life – not a perfect life, not a happily ever after life – but a life where she is able to live out loud.
Ms. Sheila,
I love this movie! That sudden kiss from the stranger…this romantic nonsensical nonsequiter that changes her forever. Inspired!
And how BOUT that chanteuse performance my Ms. L? Truly royal!
God, yes – the kiss from a stranger.
I just so related to her. How … it was just a moment, a moment of connection with a stranger … but she put a lot of hopes into seeing him again … she thought it was the “beginning” of something.
It is sometimes the smaller disappointments in life which REALLY break our spirit. not the big ones.
like the proverbial straw and the camel, i suppose…
I love this movie. Holly’s constant conversation with herself – I could identify. And the Queen is better suited to standards than nearly anyone. I wish she’d do a tribute to Ella record.