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[Short Reviews]

FAST FOOD, FAST WOMEN

When Israeli-born director Amos Kollek and Anna Thomson teamed up in Sue (1997), the result was a homage to the grit of early-’70s American cinema: a bit too reliant on facile pessimism but a marvelous showcase for Thomson. Although the film barely surfaced on American screens, it made Thomson a cult icon in France, and that enabled her and Kollek to make four more films together. This one, their third, is more Capra than Cassavetes.

Approaching her 35th birthday, waitress Bella (Thomson) feels her life is going nowhere quickly. She’s seeing a married man who keeps promising to leave his wife; meanwhile she’s trying to start a relationship with a novelist cabbie (Jamie Harris). The lives of the elderly regulars at her restaurant are no smoother. Nevertheless, Kollek offers a fairy-tale version of New York life: even a mugging has a silver living. Thomson makes a fine comic heroine, but the film takes on serious problems — loneliness, America’s double standard regarding aging — and answers them with an overload of cute jokes and unbelievable plot twists. If the despair of Sue didn’t ring entirely true, neither does the sit-com optimism that’s presented here.

By Steve Erickson

Issue Date: June 28- July 5, 2001