Badly written with a weak narrative structure that leaves one wondering if anything is actually going to happen, this could have been a decent film to cuddle up to a loved one with. But I was positively *cringing* at some scenes, especially the sing-song bit in the bar, where everyone joined in as if it had been a tradition of theirs for years, with everyone knowing the words and everyone loving it oh so much; an awful piece of directing and acting (Mo going off key so obviously). This film was full of stupid things that no one would do or say and things that weren't said that would have been, etc. What woman wouldn't take offence if a friend told her she reminded her of Kathy Bates from Misery? Check out the dialogue of Willie's father following the dinner with Tracey. In places this film is unbearable. If I hadn't been waiting for the appearance of Annabeth Gish I might have turned off in disgust long before the end. But there are a few redeeming features; Michael Rapaport as Paul giving his reasons for not removing his pictures of models from his wall becomes almost poetic (we'll ignore the fact that this was totally out of character). He was carrying more than his fair share of this movie single-handedly, with Matt Dillon and Rosie O'Donnell sleepwalking through familiar territory, and the other supporting roles so numerous that they could only be thinly written. But this is undoubtedly Natalie Portman's film. She is a triumph, even if her character does stretch credibility to breaking point. The doomed romance is played so perfectly I fell for her myself, and the penultimate exchange between her character Marty, and Willie, moved me to tears. Although Portman's performance is so good I would go so far as to say one should watch it just for that, this isn't great filmmaking. A final sour note is that Beautiful Girls also has a distinctly unsavory, female-chauvanistic tone. Summary:Has redeeming features but not enough. Rating:Low Average, 4/10 (raised from 2 by Portman and Rapaport).
Review of Beautiful Girls
