Amazon.com Product Description:Touching, compelling and original, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her spins a brilliant tapestry of interwoven vignettes. Starring Oscar winner Holly Hunter, five-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close, Golden Globe Winner Calista Flockhart ("Ally McBeal") and Golden Globe nominees Cameron Diaz (Charlie's Angels), Amy Brenneman ("Judging Amy") and Kathy Baker ("Picket Fences"), this "really special film" ("Ebert & Roeper and the Movies") is an absolute "triumph" (Mirabella). In the heart of L.A., six extraordinary women have come to an emotional crossroads: a talented young detective (Brenneman) struggles with loneliness, an ambitious bank manager (Hunter) contemplates motherhood and a successful doctor (Close) confronts her spiritual emptiness. At the same time, a blind teacher (Diaz) searches for love, a middle-aged writer (Baker) grapples with prejudice and a gifted fortune-teller (Flockhart) grieves for her dying lover. Poised between fear and hope, each woman must weigh the choices she's madein order to meet the future unfolding before her.
Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her is a series of vignettes that are all somehow connected. Basically the equivalent of a really good short story collection! Each story is about 20 or so minutes long and plays out almost to a conclusion but then skips to the next story where a new character or two are focused on but characters from the previous stories also appear. I love how this fits together so neatly and creates a whole world. So after all the characters have been introduced and their stories have begun it all comes full circle at the end and most (but not all) come to a conclusion of sorts.
Of the 5 vignettes, I had two favorites, Someone For Rose and Love Waits For Kathy. Someone For Rose is so sweet, I think I squealed when I was watching it. It's the story of shy Kathy, the mother of a teenage son. One day a man moves in across the street and she finds herself really drawn to him but doesn't really know how to act around him. I don't want to say anymore than that. In Love Waits For Kathy, Kathy is the older sister of Carol, who is blind. They live together and you can sort of tell that Kathy has put her sister's happiness in front of her own. While Carol goes out on dates Kathy, who is a detective, works on the case of a suicide of someone she once knew.
So I got this one because I saw something about it somewhere, no idea what and I love star studded power casts. It blew me away! I guess I shouldn't be surprised because of who is in this movie but I still was. This came out in 2000 so maybe it was before I paid a ton of attention to movies because I had never heard of it until recently! I'm so glad I found it!
4.5/5 Stars
Watched via Netflix
What's a movie you have seen that is a series of vignettes?
I haven't heard of this one but it sounds really good! How long is the whole film?
ReplyDeleteH- It was about an hour and 50 minutes. It could have been twice as long as far as I was concerned! :) If you watch it let me know what you think!
ReplyDeleteI recently saw this through my Netflix and put it in my queue but just haven't gotten the chance to see it. You just knocked it up to #1. Thanks - I really have been wanting to see it but hadn't really heard much about it.
ReplyDeleteThe movie sounds good - I've never heard of it before. I recently saw a movie on TV that was comprised of different vignettes all about NYC's subways called "SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground" that was pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteHummm. This is new to me. Sounds really interesting. I'll put in my NetFlix queue.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm...The movie Crash comes to mind. Have you seen it?
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this movie before - thanks for bringing it to my attention. It sounds good!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds kind of like the movie Paris j'tamie (or whatever, I don't speak French!). I really enjoyed that one, I'll have to give this one a try!
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to see this movie for a while; thanks for reminding me about it! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteOh, sounds great. I love Holly Hunter. I've never seen a film like this, as far as I can remember...but itsn't J'aime Paris (or something...) set up like that? I want to see it.
ReplyDelete-Lauren
Oh yes! Paris, Je T'aime is in vignettes, there are a lot of them in the one film and some are really fantastic.
ReplyDeleteNely- Yay, I hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteSheri S.- Just put it on my queue! Thank you!
Beth F- Let me know what you think!
Sharon- I hated that movie. It was like everything wrong in the world it just made me SAD. A little sad it ok but that was too much.
Bermudaonion- Sure thing!
S. Krishna- I LOVE THAT MOVIE! And there is one called New York, I Love You! When that comes out I'm totally going to spaz!
Avisannschild- Yeah I didn't even know about it until recently it was so good you'd think it would be talked about a lot!
Shooting Stars Mag- Yup, Paris Je t'aime is. MUST WATCH NOW!
LisaMay- It is really fantastic, did you hear about New York, I Love You!!!!
Oh, Alea, this is embarrassing but when I checked out the movie on IMdB I realized I'd seen it before! Blame my terrible memory, because I do remember liking it...
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen this movie! I've never even heard of another movie made like this. I'll have to make sure to tell my mom about it next time I call her. Gotta go find the trailer now.
ReplyDeleteAvisannschild- Hehe! You must watch it again to refresh your memory!
ReplyDeleteLadytink_534- I really liked it and couldn't believe I had never heard of it until recently either!
alea your nuts Crash was amazing.
ReplyDeletesharonanne- If by amazing you mean, it's amazing how awful this world can be? I was seriously stressed out after watching it, I could feel the stress in my chest! I hated it!
ReplyDelete