Beautiful Girls (1996)

This town drama from Ted Demme centers on former classmates coming together for their 10-year reunion. Scott Rosenberg's (Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead) script thoughtfully passes over the usual grumblings of young adults who can't believe they still live in the same snowbound town. They accept--even welcome--their blue-collar jobs, whether plowing snow or cutting hair. Willie (Timothy Hutton), the lone wanderer, returns to his listless house in a state of flux, the piano-bar circuit wearing thin as is his relationship with Tracy, a well-off attorney (Annabeth Gish). He isn't the only one with problems. Tommy (Matt Dillon) occasionally sleeps with his now-married high school sweetheart Darian (Lauren Holly) while the earnest Sharon (Mira Sorvino) is left to wait. Paul (another thickheaded role for Michael Rapaport) refuses to commit to Jan (Martha Plimpton) until it's too late. Paul is enamored with the idea of the supermodel (the title's "beautiful girls") that, he believes, can make life perfect. It's a very satisfying comedy, with some forced poignancy (Willie's description of Tracy as a "seven and a half" comes off as a death sentence). Rosie O'Donnell's dissertation on why Playboy and Penthouse have ruined males' expectations is much like Meg Ryan's orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally...: it's hilarious, even memorable, never wholly believable.

The two wild cards thrown into Beautiful Girls give the film its kick. Uma Thurman enters as the local barkeep's (Pruitt Taylor Vince) radiant cousin. From the big city, she can flirt with the awestruck guys and still keep her head. Willie's real emotional tug is from Marty, the precocious 13-year-old neighbor. If you didn't see Natalie Portman's sophisticated work in the The Professional, her performance here will come as a revelation. You deeply believe that Willie and Marty are connected despite their age difference. Their courtship will never come to be, but the way the two talk (and talk some more) about their lives is the most insightful part of Rosenberg's script. Everyone's so comfortable in his or her roles that you may truly feel sad when the film ends. --Doug Thomas Amazon.com

A tragedy of Elizabethan proportions

Beautiful Girls is an ensemble comedy, with star power to burn. Hutton and Sorvino are both Oscar winners, while Dillon Thurman, and Portman have Oscar nominations. The title of this movie, Beautiful Girls, should clue you in to what it's about. It is a celebration of the beauty of women, but at the same time, it is also a cautionary tale about how men put Beauty on a pedestal that sometimes interferes with them making a commitment to a mature adult relationship with a real woman. In spite of the stellar cast and lofty premise, it probably went straight to DVD. I have no recollection of this movie being released theatrically. I thought that because of this it would be a big stinker, but it was actually quite good. I have a few theories about why it performed so poorly at the box office:

It had a rather diffuse focus, since it featured a group of high school buddies still hanging out, trying to get married and settle down, but finding it hard to accept adult life. Tommy, Paul, and Willie (Matt Dillon, Michael Rappaport, and Timothy Hutton, respectively) are the main three protagonists, and each of these three has two female antagonists to antagonize them. So, the story has not one but three love triangles, and thus it is hard to fully focus your attention on any one of them. Furthermore, none of the stories take the most exciting story arc, where two star-crossed lovers defy the odds, choosing to be together in spite of the world's scorn. No, they choose the path of least resistance, the status quo. They settle for comfortable. So they didn't capture lightning in a bottle.

On the other hand, there is a lot to like in this little movie that could. Great scenes, such as the sing-along 'Sweet Caroline' in the bar. High School Reunion retributions. Great locales in the snow drenched winter of Knight's Ridge. Beautiful Girls is chock full of blue ribbon dialogue. Even Paul, who wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, gets a grand soliloquy:

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Paul: Supermodels are beautiful girls, Will. A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you've been drinking Jack and Coke all morning. She can make you feel high full of the single greatest commodity known to man - promise. Promise of a better day. Promise of a greater hope. Promise of a new tomorrow. This particular aura can be found in the gait of a beautiful girl. In her smile, in her soul, the way she makes every rotten little thing about life seem like it's going to be okay. The supermodels, Willy? That's all they are. Bottled promise. Scenes from a brand new day. Hope dancing in stiletto heels.
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Willie is put off by Paul's infatuation with Beautiful Girls, i.e., Supermodels. His dog is named Elle McPherson. His room is a shrine, with high fashion photos of Supermodels tacked on every available surface. It gives him the Willies:

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Willie Conway: I am now going to check your freezer for human heads.
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Willie should talk, for he has issues of his own. Home from the road (he is a piano player, but he doubts his talent--and with good reason) he feels ambivalent about his fiancé, yet strangely attracted to a cute neighbor girl; but what could have been super creepy is only creepy, as the mutual attraction between the two is handled tastefully, and remains unrequited. His attraction is meant to be more about his own mid-life crisis, his inability to commit to a mature adult relationship, though it also provides some very insightful comments from Marty (Natalie Portman), who is portrayed as a most precocious young woman--an old soul wise beyond her years. From the mouths of babes:

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Marty: If I'm not mistaken, you've come back here to the house of loneliness and tears, to Daddy Downer and Brother Bummer, to come to some sort of decision about life, a life decision if you will.
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There is a scene where Willie sees Marty ice skating. They awkwardly flirt, kind of joking as a defense until they determine that the attraction is mutual. Finally she says, again kind of joking--but serious on some level--that he could wait for five years for her. He declines, but in such a sweet way, comparing themselves to Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh, because in the end of the story, Christopher outgrew Pooh:

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Willie Conway: I can't play Pooh to your Christopher Robin.
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In some ways Tommy (Matt Dillon) is the character most trapped by his past, when he was a legend in High School. His ex girlfriend Darian Smalls (Lauren Holly) is married now, with a little girl of her own, but she still clings to the past, when she was the hottest chick in school and Tommy was her boyfriend. Tommy is dating Sharon Cassidy (Mira Sorvino) now, and though she is perfect, he can't see it, because his high school sweetheart still has her claws in him deep.

Sharon suffers like a fool for him, pouring her heart out to Gina (Rosie O'Donnell) in the hair salon. Sharon doesn't really have much to do here, considering that Mira Sorvino just won an Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite. Rosie O has a better part, and for a change was well cast in this role. In your face, with all the facts from a to z about men and their multifarious shortcomings. Her advice about Tommy is to just walk away. This is how she cheers her up about the break up:

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Gina: At first, after the breakup, you'll have these visions. Of you alone, 57, 58, walking around, wearing a nightgown, your hair in a bun, maybe you're a librarian, heating up a can of soup for one, and worrying about the cobwebs that are growing in your womb.
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Uma Thurman is thrown into the mix for some reason (I mean, it was getting a little mundane, so Thurman was thrown in to give it a little bit of that Beautiful Girls magic that Paul spoke so eloquently about). Not that I'm complaining. Uma pours shots of whiskey like a pro, likes watching fights where hockey breaks out, is beautiful, and offers expert counsel. She goes 'out' with both Paul and Willie, and even encounters Tommy while walking after midnight. She, however, remains true to her love back home:

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Tommy: Can I ask you a question?
Andera: Go ahead.
Tommy: How long have you been going out with your boyfriend?
Andera: Eight months.
Tommy: And it's good?
Andera: It's very good.
Tommy: He makes you happy?
Andera: Yeah. I look for that in a man you know. The ones that make me miserable don't seem to last.
Tommy: Right.
Andera: You know there are four words I need to hear before I go to sleep. Four little words. "Good night sweet girl." That's all it takes. I'm easy, I know, but a guy who can muster up those four words is a guy I want to stay with.
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Ted Demme, the director, died of a heart attack while playing in a celebrity charity basketball game. An autopsy revealed cocaine. He was only 37. He might have gone on to be a genius director, but as it is he left us with a couple of promising films after Beautiful Girls. 'Blow' and 'A Decade Under the Influence', to be bitterly ironic.

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Marty: It's a tragedy of Elizabethan proportions.
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DIRECTED BY TED DEMME

A Decade Under the Influence (2003)
Blow (Infinifilm Edition) (2001)

MATT DILLON

Factotum (2005) .... Hank Chinaski
Crash (Widescreen Edition) (2004/I) .... Officer John Ryan
Singles (1992) .... Cliff Poncier
Drugstore Cowboy (1989) .... Bob

TIMOTHY HUTTON

The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) .... Christopher Boyce
Ordinary People (1980) .... Conrad Jarrett

ROSIE O'DONNELL

Exit to Eden (1994) .... Sheila Kingston
The Flintstones (1994) .... Betty Rubble
Car 54, Where Are You? (1994) .... Lucille Toody
Fatal Instinct (1993) (uncredited) .... Woman in Bird Store
A League of Their Own (1992) .... Doris Murphy - 3rd Base

MIRA SORVINO

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) .... Romy White
Mighty Aphrodite (1995) .... Linda Ash

UMA THURMAN

My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) .... Jenny Johnson / G-Girl
The Producers (2005) .... Ulla
Prime (2005) .... Rafi Gardet
Be Cool (2005) .... Edie Athens
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) .... Beatrix Kiddo - The Bride, 'Black Mamba'
Paycheck (2003) .... Rachel
Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (Box Set) (2003) .... The Bride
Chelsea Walls (2001) .... Grace
Tape (2001) .... Amy Randall
The Golden Bowl (2000) .... Charlotte Stant
Vatel (2000) .... Anne de Montausier
Sweet and Lowdown (1999) .... Blanche
The Avengers (1998) .... Emma Peel
Misérables, Les (1998) .... Fantine
Gattaca (1997) .... Irene Cassini
Batman & Robin (1997) .... Poison Ivy / Dr. Pamela Isley
The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) .... Noelle
Beautiful Girls (1996) .... Andera
A Month by the Lake (1995) .... Miss Beaumont
Pulp Fiction (1994) .... Mia Wallace
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) .... Sissy Hankshaw
Mad Dog and Glory (1993) .... Glory
Jennifer Eight (1992) .... Helena Robertson
Final Analysis (1992) .... Diana Baylor
Henry & June (1990) .... June Miller
Where the Heart Is (1990) .... Daphne McBain
Dangerous Liaisons (1988) .... Cécile de Volanges

NATALIE PORTMAN

New York, I Love You (2008) .... Rifka
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) .... Anne Boleyn
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) .... Molly Mahoney, the Composer
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) .... Jack's Ex-Girlfriend
Hotel Chevalier (2007) .... Jack's Girlfriend
My Blueberry Nights (2007) .... Leslie
Goya's Ghosts (2006) .... Inés/Alicia
Paris, je t'aime (2006) .... Francine (segment 'Faubourg Saint-Denis')
V for Vendetta (Widescreen Edition) (2005) .... Evey
Free Zone (2005) .... Rebecca
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) .... Padmé
Domino One (2005) .... Dominique Bellamy
Closer (Superbit Edition) (2004/I) .... Alice
True (2004) .... Francine
Garden State (2004) .... Sam
Cold Mountain (2003) .... Sara
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) .... Senator Padmé Amidala
Where the Heart Is (2000) .... Novalee Nation
Anywhere But Here (1999) .... Ann August
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) .... Queen Padmé Amidala
Mars Attacks! (1996) .... Taffy Dale
Everyone Says I Love You (1996) .... Laura Dandridge
Beautiful Girls (1996) .... Marty
Heat (1995) .... Lauren Gustafson September 14, 2008

Love my movie

I'v been looking for this hard to find movie for awhile. I love it. Delivery was fast. Perfect transaction February 13, 2008

Willie C! Stay cool! Stay cool forever

One of the best and a collectible & worth watching the movie for just this part
"Supermodels are beautiful girls, Will. A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you've been drinking Jack and Coke all morning. Se can make you feel high with the single greatest commodity known to man--promise. Promise of a better day. Promise of a greater hope. Promise of a new tomorrow. This particular aura can be found in the gaze of a beautiful girl. In her smile, in her soul, how she makes every rotten little thing about life seem like it's going to be okay. The supermodels are bottled promise. A beautiful girl is all powerful, and that's as good as love" April 11, 2007

I beg to differ (a little)

This is a fine film. The characters are older young adults, barely young enough to be able to characterize this as a "rite-of-passage" film. I disagree with those who suggest that the characters ultimately give up on the dreams of their youth and "settle" for an inevitable and dull adulthood. From my 58 year old vantage point, they are leaving their shallow and immature adolescence for the deeper and more meaningful commitments to mature, real (not mythologized) partners who love them for who they are. They are ready to embrace their lives both present and future and let go of the ever more distant and irrelevant past.
The Hutton character is certainly tempted by Thurman. Though he admires and cares for the 13 yr old Portman character, he is always aware that her desire for him will not be returned by him. He relates to her impatience to grow up, recognizes her puppylove feelings for him, but never considers abusing her affection for him.
This is a wonderful ensemble cast. Though more polished than its predecessor, this film reminds me of the early John Sayles film "Return Of The Secaucus Seven". November 15, 2006

Willie and Marty

This movie is about the growing relationship between a surprised, smitten Willie and beautiful girl Marty. It's all we care about. Everything else is window dressing to these two. October 8, 2006

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