Ah my Michelle Pfeiffer fixation continues. But she’s a little lost in this amazing cast which also includes Alison Lohman (how have I gone so long without knowing of this girl?), Renee Zellweger, Robin Wright Penn and Patrick Fugit. I kind of knew I’d like the movie just looking at those opening credits roll by to Thomas Newman’s score.

In one way it was exactly the type of movie I was expecting from what I’d seen before – a dreamy, slow, poetic, talky drama. But the story, and Michelle Pfeiffer’s character in particular, was totally unexpected.

Alison Lohman is amazing as the daughter of a woman arrested for murder. Through a series of foster homes and care centres, she slowly discovers who she is, while her mother watches her from jail, upset that her daughter’s not turning out like her. Her storyline and character sort of remind me of Evan Rachel Wood in Thirteen, but her problems are far far worse than the average teenager.

There’s one moment in the movie that made me jump out of my skin more than I have in a long time. It’s the film’s first of many slightly outrageous turns – all the bad things sort of tend to happen to Lohman’s character, and it almost becomes a little ridiculous.

Not for me though, I loved this movie. The final moments with Pfeiffer will stay with me for a long time. You can tell this movie comes from a novel, the character details are just so fine. It’s so wonderful when a movie can capture the very fine line that exists between love and hate, and this one really does that perfectly. Add to that some great musing discussions about the nature of art, etc, and this is one movie I’m bound to revisit again and again in the future.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 7th, 2005 at 12:02 am in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.