Ally Sheedy, best known for the Brat Pack days of The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire makes a startling, brilliant comeback as Lucy, the heroine-addicted photographer who gets a second jumpstart due to the doting of struggling assistant editor Syd (Radha Mitchell, Pitch Black). In return, Syd finds the drive for expression in herself. To make matters more interestingly complex is that this latter catharsis comes through an initially negative influence. The lack of glamour applied to these characters amidst the arts industry allows for them to become complete, fascinating individuals.
Each of the leads has their share of complications to work through that provide a uniquely textured background for the central relationship. Syd lives with her boyfriend and there’s no reason to suspect she’s unhappy. It isn’t a lack on his part that she finds herself returning to Lucy’s side so much as an awakening, and a realistically scary one at that. Though he leaves her, he is never portrayed as a brute but doesn’t have much of a choice in the circumstances he finds himself in.
On Lucy’s side, she realizes through interaction with Syd that she cannot be happy in the lazy, addicted life any longer, much to the chagrin of her German lover Greta, played by the ever-talented and almost unrecognizable Patricia Clarkson. It becomes frustrating to increasingly come home to find her friends doing lines in the living room. Lucy visits her German, Jewish mother often, who supports her in exchange for a consistent ear, whether they are having a pleasant discussion or not.
One of the strongest scenes is when Syd and Lucy consummate their relationship. Normally you would expect this to be overly romantic, with Syd’s desires being an exciting occasion. Instead, Syd is scared and naïve, fumbling with what to do in her confusion. What makes this moment poignant is you realize Syd is slowly understanding that making love is about whom you love and who returns it, not what shape their body comes in. In a way, it hearkens back to an entirely different film, The Crying Game in the idea of “it’s only a piece of meat”. This isn’t Syd suddenly becoming a lesbian after being a heterosexual her whole life, it’s about mutual admiration surprising you in the least likely places.
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