What did you think?

i thought it was VERY interesting, very moving, and poignant...

i think of all the stories Holly Hunter's is most interesting b/c of the 'bag' lady that wants to keep her ciggies....

Cameron D. was great too, tho.. 'bout made me cry there too! :(



okily dokily smokily

I feel like you might like the movie if you saw it again and looked at it from a different point of view.

The movie is not one big "story," but more like an anthology of very powerful short stories, each vignette illustrating something about a woman that's hidden or private.

I found the tangents and relationships very believable; I felt like the film was showing us how *these* particular women's lives intersected, deliberately (versus, hey, what a coincidence, so-and-so lives next door! etc).

But most importantly, I loved how each vignette told us about a person's private life:

* Holly Hunter has an almost casual affair yet cannot go on being casual when she loses the baby she didn't even know she wanted (a fact emphasized by the bag lady and her mysterious and sorrowful connection to her). She has everything yet in a moment sees how little happiness she has really gained in life;

* Glenn Close is cool and closed off, patiently tending to her aging mother, yet she is secretly desperate for love, seeing signs in every phone call and encounter; yet when she finally meets the man we know is right for her, she is completely oblivious (as she should be; it's the only way she'll succeed)

* Kathy Baker's character pays a little more attention one day to an attractive new neighbor who also happens to be a dwarf (Danny Woodburn is wonderful in this), and discovers love where she least expected it

* And Amy Brenneman, constantly overshadowed by a strong and seemingly unflappable sister (Diaz, although this too is just a facade), finds love ironically because of the death of the woman in red, and because she notices, perhaps for the first time, what a caring and gentle man the medical examiner is.

I loved the movie, and it remains a favorite. I especially love the attention to detail, and the ways all the stories intersect, however lightly. Nobody's a cliche. Ultimately, I think it's a lovely and uplifting series of stories.

The connections between each sequence are quite strong (other than the obvious) if you stop to think:

*The dead woman walks through each person's path, which not only signals the passage of the single day that they all live through at some point during their stories, but also showing these women's physical proximity.

*There is also the way in which each major character intersects with at least one other character to tie the movie together. This is probably the most obvious, and if you only look at the movie as being bound together by this, it doesn't work.

*Here I need some help, as I no longer have the film here to review. Was the boy's name in Calista Flockheart's childhood story about the canary Walter? It think it was. If this is the case, Walter is involved in every single woman's life in this story in some way - and the more immediately and closely he is involved the more miserable that person is. This leads to a couple of conclusions for me: Dr. Keener (Close) will either need to change him, or he will make her miserable, or he is not the man who will make her happy. Also, leads me to the conclusion that the man (if Diaz's character is right) who is responsible for Carmen's suicide is also Walter.
I don't think he is a character is that important, but rather he is a symbol for "the man" (you know, the bad type) who makes each of these women so unhappy. We notice that the person who ends up being happiest is the one who does not go for "the man," but rather another man. (Talking about Rose here.)

*Each woman's story has something to do with the absence of a mother / daughter bond. Dr. Keener's elderly mother is no longer a mother. We never actually see Walter's daughter's mother, and we get the impression she usually lives with him. The dying woman (Flockhart's lover) asks about whether her mother has called. Flockhart tells a story casting a negative light on her mother. There is an interesting discussion between the two women lovers about babies - Flockhart doesn't want one, the other favors a boy. Kathy Baker has a son, and unlike those in mother/daughter pairs in the film, there is a bond (which is yet another way her story is the one that most stands apart to solidify the theme - a foil to the others if you will). Holly Hunter - kind of obvious. Bag lady - ditto. Sisters - living together with no mother. The one who committed suicide lost a baby daughter.
This also ties in nicely to a unifying theme of who becomes caretaker in the absence of a mother.
This is a very strong bond between the stories.

*A secondary theme I think is vulnerability versus strength (or perceived strength). You can look at each character and figure this out. However, what is an interesting visual tie on this one that draws the pieces together are shots of characters sleeping prone.

There is probably more. I only got to see this once so far. I think it seems deceptively simple and quiet to the casual viewer, but when you watch it more intently, it is tightly woven.

I liked this film very much.

And one of the reasons I liked it is due to the brief appearance of the charachters in the "other" stories combined with the title; like the woman in read, Carlista reading cards for Glenn etc.

When they appear in other stories than their own, they appear fine, happy and so on. Which resembles real life more or less. In the short meetings we have with new people in daily life (like the clerk at the bank or the whimsy person passing us on the street), we never conside their lives. That woman passing you on the street right now, might just be on her way to a motel to kill herself.

Which leads me to think of how good we are to keep up apparences, and show the world what we want to tell them.

**********
They blew up Congress!!! HAHAHA!

This movie was so beautiful, so full of emotion and love, its simple yet powerful on so many levels, its a very touching movie.


“I’m hard up girls, but not quite that hard up.” - Emery Waterman (Rose Red)