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Brer_Rabbit
Reviews
101 Ways (The Things a Girl Will Do to Keep Her Volvo) (2000)
a film with power windows and leather seats!
"101 Ways" is a brilliant, quirky, comic gem of a film. At first, you may not identify with the protagonist, Watson Gowan, who drives an expensive new Volvo and has moved to Connecticut to pursue her creative writing -- but it quickly turns out that Watson has the same problems as most of us: finding a job that doesn't suck, paying the bills, and (of course) the pursuit of True Love. The film's slice-of-suburban-life narrative is punctuated by a hilarious use of monologue, in which the various characters get to make wry or trenchant observations about their side of the story -- directly to the audience of the film. Woven into this story are a couple of priceless fantasy sequences that never fail to deliver belly laughs, as well as a few cathartic moments of well-acted pathos that throw the comedy into sharp relief. It's obvious the actors had a lot of fun with this offbeat material, and they did a terrific job -- all the characters in Watson's life come across as utterly funny, authentic, and recognizable -- even if you have never been to Connecticut and have never driven a Volvo. Kudos to the director for making suburbia look so appealing.
"101 Ways..." manages to be witty without being glib. It manages to be lighthearted without being lightweight. Even more impressively, it manages to avoid hackneyed romantic comedy clichés while being hysterically funny... thus making this a rare gem indeed.