My First Mister

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Subtitles), Spanish (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN, SYNOPSIS: A remarkable film that works its emotional hooks into an audience with a gradual, assured patience that is astonishing coming from a debut feature filmmaker, this comedy drama is smart, truthful, and (most importantly) genuinely funny. Despite material that is likely to be considered "slight" in the era of commonplace 100-million-dollar-plus productions, director Christine Lahti's film, particularly coming on the heels of her Oscar win for the short subject Lieberman in Love (1995), places her in the ranks of such other performers-turned-directors as Woody Allen and Clint Eastwood. The script, by former Seinfeld writer Jill Franklyn, is a sharp, sympathetic examination of two people smart enough to immediately have each other's number, as well as to know that their reclusive tendencies are unhealthy, even in the face of a mutual unwillingness to change. In that sense, the film bears similarities to As Good As It Gets (1997), a project sure to exceed this one in terms of awards, critical acclaim, and audience attention. That's because, in place of a romantic pas de deux between Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, the filmmakers offer up a wistful, didactic friendship between a 49-year-old man and a 17-year-old goth chick. That those roles are filled by actors as iconoclastic as Albert Brooks, who rarely acts in anything stupid and so rarely acts, and Leelee Sobieski, a teen who must turn down scores of teen films but has played Joan of Arc, is further indication that mainstream audiences won't find much paint-by-numbers emotional clarity here.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailer(s), Scene Access, Interactive Menu, Filmographies, Commentary, Product Description