I have seen a number of films that left me unpleasantly dangling, but I did not feel that way at all about Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her.
It doesn't matter to me whether Close's character will take up with Craven's because what I thought was important was that the fortune teller had planted the idea in Close's character's head that a new man would come into her life, so then she was able to break free from her obsession for the doctor colleague. This was enough closure for me.
It does not matter to me whether the detective will have a relationship with the pathologist. What I thought was important was that she tried to hide the date from her sister because she was sensitive about her blind sister being popular with men partly for her novelty to them.
I also felt the film was "exquisitely sensitive."
I didn't need "guidelines for the future of the characters" because the author's message, that women can endure great emotional pain and maintain hope for the future, was solidly conveyed to me.
Upon a second viewing, I became much more aware of the suicide character's symbolic and central role in the story. She was the underlying threat of giving up in all the other women's lives. But unlike her, they did not give up. I must be careful here though, not to minimize the suicide character's loss of a child. There are times when pain is beyond one's power to endure.
A reviewer commented that the loose association between all the vignettes was too loose. I disagree. The tenuousness of the connections was purposeful in that hope is tenuous, and one should never underestimate the possibility that more connection exists than is apparent.
I found so much magic working in this film that it has become among my all time favorites among the many hundreds of art house and indie films I have seen.
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caroidefix96
16 years ago
I agree 100% with the things you wrote in your review, it is so clear. This film is one of my truly favourites.
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tishame
13 years ago
I have to agree with you on all your comments. well put and very nicely critic-ed.
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Missytara
11 years ago
I absolutely cringe when someone posts or says that they are left dangling at the ending, because they were not outright told emphatically what happened to the characters.
I have to say your post is dead on, with its explanation of why we don't need to know what their next step was - it was the journey that got them there and we are free to make our own conclusions about what their next step would have been.
I have to say that I somehow didn't realize the suicide victim at my first or second viewing of the film, weaving through the other characters lives. It wasn't until my third viewing; the young girl holding the red dress at the intersection where Rebecca was waiting to cross, I realized how important her role was in the movie.
I catch this whenever it is on TV; which happened to be this weekend, that made me think of it.
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DivaJ75
11 years ago
I watched it this weekend as well. Loved it.
"Give a hand to my band, Sexual Chocolate!" Coming to America
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