Hey folks, here's a story about a film that won't be appearing in a theater near us Americanos because MGM would rather spend money advertising real jewels like SUPERNOVA. Sigh... Anyways... here's another good film like THE WONDERFUL ICE CREAM SUIT that should've been in a theater near you.

'THINGS YOU KNOW JUST BY LOOKING AT HER'

The new Cameron Diaz/Holly Hunter/Glenn Close/Calista Flockhart film 'Things You Know Just by Looking at Her' gained a bit of notoriety when the studio that produced it (MGM) decided not to release it in US cinemas but to go for a TV premiere instead. However, the film WILL be released in Europe soon, so I thought I'd review it for the European fanboys and girls, and for those Americans interested in watching it on Showtime...

To be honest, I can't see why 'Things You Know Just by Looking at Her' was deemed unfit for a cinema release. True, the opening half hour is bit slow, but it picks up after that and turns into something quite watchable. There's plenty of humour, there are good performances from all involved, and there are some interesting threads to follow. The only reasons I can see for it not being released in the US is that it's a tad serious (particularly in the first half hour), and that the studio feared people might be fed up with 'Magnolia'-like plotless films. The film IS rather like 'Magnolia' (or 'Short Cuts') in that it involves a dozen or so characters who don't seem to be related but whose lives eventually turn out to be intertwined. It also reminds one of 'Magnolia' in the use of names (there are a Rose and a Lily in the film), the use of similar characters (the dying parent, the young woman who takes an overdose), the theme of loneliness (all the characters in the film are lonely and pining for love), and the somewhat ambiguous title. To be sure, the words 'things you can tell just by looking at her' do show up in the film (unlike the magnolia motif in 'Magnolia,' which remains vague even after repeated watchings of the film), but one isn't entirely sure to which character they refer. As a matter of fact, they could refer to any of the women in the story. For this is, essentially, a women's film, with great female psychology and stress on interpersonal relationships. Lest this scare off the male reader: male director Rodrigo Garcia ensures it doesn't become too sentimental, and adds some humour that men will appreciate as much as women.

The story, if one can speak of a story in a film like this, is as follows. A lonely doctor (Glenn Close) looks after her dying mother. She is in love with a colleague and consults a tarot card reader (Calista Flockhart) to see if the relationship is going anywhere. The tarot card reader, for her part, is involved in a lesbian relationship with a dying young woman (a very sickly-looking Valeria Golino). Then there is a tough bank manager (Holly Hunter) who gets pregnant by her married lover (Gregory Hines) and decides to have an abortion, but not before she has had a one-night stand with a colleague (Matt Craven) with a blind daughter and some weird encounters with a bag lady. The next story is that of a divorcee (Kathy Baker?) and her streetwise 15-year-old son (Noah Fleiss), whose lives are enriched by a new neighbour, a dwarf played by Danny Woodburn. Finally, we get Cameron Diaz as a young lady determined not to be victimised by her blindness. Her sister (Roma Maffia?) is a detective investigating the death of a young woman whose loneliness represents that of all the other women in the film.

Garcia's direction is of the old-fashioned sort (lots of long shots and endless dialogues), and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki does some impressive things with colours. For instance, at the outset of the film, when we focus on two frigid women (Glenn Close and Holly Hunter), the colours are light and cold. Close is surrounded by white, and is filmed in white light, which, appropriately, makes her look quite sterile. The mood is even icier when we move to Hunter, whose car, bag, dress, and surroundings are all a metallic silvery blue that suits her character extremely well. After that, the colours become warmer, as do the characters they represent. One of the last shots we get is that of a colourful bouquet held up against the evening sky - a sign that at least one character (I won't tell you which) has found love.

The acting, as I said, is good. I had some misgivings about Flockhart, whose nervous tarot card reader at first seems a down-market version of her 'Ally McBeal' persona (think Ally in hippie rags and you've got the picture), but she moves away from the Ally thing and is quite believable as a grieving lesbian lover. Hers are the longest monologues in the film. They were all shot in one take, which goes to prove that Flockhart's reputation of a decent stage actress isn't founded on nothing.

Another impressive performance is that of young Noah Fleiss, who shines as the streetwise teenage boy on the brink of adulthood. He gets to say some deliciously politically-incorrect things about dwarves ("I wonder what time dwarves go to bed"), which he delives with great aplomb.

The real standout, however, is Holly Hunter, whose part is basically a Y2K reprise of the role that made her famous, that of the frigid woman in 'The Piano.' There is a particularly harrowing moment where Hunter walks out of the abortion clinic, half sedated, swaying, but realising what she has just done and bursting out into tears right in the middle of the street. The tears are superfluous, but the look of despair on her face just before she starts crying is magnificent.

Cameron Diaz isn't entirely credible as the blind girl, but she gets some of the film's best lines - very cynical and ever-so-funny. Too bad she never shows up until the final one-fifth of the film.

All in all, it's a pretty good film that deserves to be released in cinemas worldwide. It's a bit slow in the beginning, but once it picks up it's really quite interesting.

The Lovely Elaine