Seven Girlfriends

Seven girlfriends may seem like too many for one movie, but one kicks the bucket and another dumps our hero, Jesse (Tim Daly), before the opening credits of Paul Lazarus's breezy debut comedy have rolled. Spurred by the latter's parting observation that he doesn't know how to have a relationship, Jesse decides to check in on girlfriends one through five as he drives cross-country to number six's funeral, dropping in on them unexpectedly to ask what he did wrong. Big surprise: he's an insensitive, selfish jerk who gives lousy presents and whose sole redeeming virtue is a knack for producing culinary masterpieces from such unlikely sources as a car engine and a dishwasher. This non-vinyl version of High Fidelity plays like Six Girlfriends and a Funeral, and it benefits from the large, talented female cast -- among them Olivia d'Abo, Elizabeth Peña, and Mimi Rogers. It's an appealing fantasy for those who have loved and lost, and Lazarus's glib screenplay is spiced with piquant charm and subversive wit despite a tendency to tepid formula and new-agey platitudes. Screens Thursday, September 14 at 7:30 and 10:10 p.m. Director Paul Lazarus will appear at the 7:30 p.m. screening.

-- Peter Keough

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Film Festival Feature Films

Shadow of the Vampire | Songcatcher | Venus Beauty Institute | What's Cooking? | The Broken Hearts Club | Envy | Goya in Bordeaux | Human Resources | Skipped Parts | Amargosa | Henry Hill | Relative Values | The Rising Place | The Contender | Pitch People | Roof to Roof | Four Dogs Playing Poker | Reckless Indifference | Requiem for a Dream | Shadow Magic | About Adam | Charming Billy | Enemies of Laughter | Into the Arms of Strangers | Running on the Sun | A Trial in Prague | Harry, He's Here to Help | A Man is Mostly Water | Seven Girlfriends

Also, Boston Film Festival short films