Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her (2000)

Touching, compelling and original, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her spins a brilliant tapestry of interwoven vignettes. Starring OscarÂ(r) winner* Holly Hunter, five-time OscarÂ(r) nominee** Glenn Close, Golden GlobeÂ(r) Winner Calista Flockhart ("Ally McBeal") and Golden GlobeÂ(r) nominees Cameron Diaz (Charlie's Angels), Amy Brenneman ("Judging Amy") and Kathy Baker ("Picket Fences"), this "really special film" ("Ebert & Roeper and the Movies") is an absolute "triumph" (Mirabella). In the heart of L.A., six extraordinary women have come to an emotional crossroads: a talented young detective (Brenneman) struggles with loneliness, an ambitious bank manager (Hunter) contemplates motherhood and a successful doctor (Close) confronts her spiritual emptiness. At the same time, a blind teacher (Diaz) searches for love, a middle-aged writer (Baker) grapples with prejudice and a gifted fortune-teller (Flockhart) grieves for her dying lover. Poised between fear and hope, each woman must weigh the choices she's madein order to meet the future unfolding before her.

I wonder what time dwarves go to bed?

Way better than I expected

When my wife brought this home, I looked it over and thought I was in for a long night. The emotional troubles of women, the shallow men who flirt and dump, the oppresive this, the glass-ceiling that. Well, did I get a surprise. My male, againg, Christian soul received a bit of a shake.

This film is indeed about women who've made some bad choices. And are in the process of realizing it. Some do better after this realization, some, apparently, do not. Much like real life. Those wake up calls often get the snooze for many years. We allow ourselves to be fooled because we need the affection, the praise, the prestige, or the glory. And find ourselves feeling used, ignored, or humiliated. But far too often the way we cleanse that soiled feeling is to do the same over again. Ask the domestic violence counselor who's seen the same woman in multiple abusive relationships. She knows better. He knows she knows better. Yet the alarm is turned off repeatedly.

There are many small jewels in this film. To reveal too much would spoil a carefully crafted tale. But this is a film intelligently at odds with the lifestyle portrayed in most cinema, where "I am the most important person" and "I need to follow my heart" and "I need to be funny and cool and hip and ironic and cynical." These are normal people who have lived mostly normal lives and found themselves somewhere other than where they'd like to be. May 21, 2008

Things I'd Never Have Seen Except Through Luck

The reviews available here do a great job whetting the appetite of those who haven't seen this remarkable film, so I'll keep my comments short. In this movie, and in his Nine Lives, Rodrigo Garcia gives us more dramatic substance,insight, and pleasure in any single 10- or 20-minute segment than we can find, nine times out of ten, in the standard industry
"blockbuster" of whatever length. I found these by pure luck, and am astonished by my good fortune. January 28, 2007

Feels like a Prequel to "Nine Lives"

"Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her" is a movie written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia, who wrote and directed what I think was the 3rd best film of 2005 "Nine Lives." This film features much of the cast of that film. This movie is Garcia's first movie and it's apparent, it definitely has a first movie vibe to it. Unlike, "Nine Lives" which let us eavesdrop on 15 minutes in the life of a woman and never leading us back to that woman; This film gives us vignettes (that are much longer than 15 minutes) and at the end brings us back to see what became of the women. While each vignette is an affecting and smart one, Garcia was able to show more emotion in the 15 minutes than he was in these 30 minute or so ones. Like, "Nine Lives" all of the vignettes are separated into sections. The first one is:
1. "This is Dr. Keener": We meet a woman named Dr. Keener (Glenn Close) who is taking care of an elderly woman. A fortune teller (Calista Flockhart) arrives at her house and predicts her future.
2. "Fantasies About Rebecca": Rebecca (Holly Hunter) discovers that she's pregnant; Meanwhile, she has sex with a co-worker (Matt Craven) and chats with a homeless woman.
3. "Someone for Rose": A children's book writer named Rose (Kathy Baker) watches as a dwarf named Albert (Danny Wood) moves in across the street; as her son Jay makes a shocking revelation.
4. "Good Night Lilly, Good Night Christine": The most affecting of the vignettes, is the story returning the fortune teller Christine (Flockhart) who watches as her lover Lilly (Valeria Golino) dies.
5. "Love Waits for Kathy": A detective named Kathy (Amy Brenneman) deals with loneliness, while her blind sister Carol (Cameron Diaz) bonds with a man named Walter (Matt Craven).
In a nutshell, there's the synopsis. While all the vignettes are affecting, I think the most entertaining one is "Someone for Rose"; While, as I said, the most affecting is "Good Night Lilly, Good Night Christine." Holly Hunter delivers the best performance in the movie, while Glenn Close is completely understated and Cameron Diaz delivers one of her best performances. The biggest problem with the movie, although it has very few flaws, is that some of the vignettes drag on too long, but it's not Garcia's fault...It's his first movie. He does a show an amazing talent for going into a woman's life for a few moments and making something out of it. This is a good film, it's not a great film but it's definitely worth checking out.

GRADE: B+
June 27, 2006

VERY good...

These slice-of-life ensemble-cast episodic movies are sometimes hit and miss, but this one was pretty solid all the way through. The unspoken common theme is, as the ironic title suggests, the hidden interior world of women, behind their deceptively "ordinary" day-to-day facades.

Luckily this film does not pretend to offer any great sweeping bromides, it just takes us deep into the inner lives of the five women featured here, all played magnificently.

This is a film that stays with you and invites repeated viewings, precisely because it does not provide neat, easy answers but rather respects the mystery and impenetrability of each individual's experience. April 29, 2006

Lush, Real, Significant.

I am sitting here, almost wordless, wondering
how to weave together just the right words to
describe the lusciousness of this film.

I described it to the woman at the Video store
and she said, "Sold! I am seeing it now!" after
I mentioned how real, how truthful and how artistically
woven together these stories are and how
skillfully it is crafted.

The cast is phenomenal - how many times can
that be said? What especially amazed me was
the talent in small roles - people like the
late Gregory Hines.

Holly Hunter floored me, walking alone down
a Los Angeles street - so together one moment
and falling apart the next.

Amy Brenneman as the sister who has given so
much for her blind sibling (played amazingly by
Cameron Diaz) who finally "gets it" after
an awakening discussion with her pupil.

Kathy Baker with her teen-aged son - wow.

ANd more, more, more - the camera angles, the
metaphor throughout, the connections between
seemingly unrelated characters just like there
are undoubtedly connections between YOU and
seemingly unconnected people in YOUR life as well.

My single favorite line - Calista Flockhart
as Christine, the Tarot Card reader - to Glenn
Close, Dr. Keener, the OB/GYN... "None of this
is written in stone - it is up to you, too."

This one is a keeper - a keeper indeed. February 5, 2006

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