Beautiful Girls (95)

11/30/96

Timothy Hutton is a guy who comes back to his hometown for a high school reunion. He meets up with the whole crew and remembers the old times. As all of his buddies are now in their late 20s, they are each faced with questions of the future and where a woman fits into their plan. Hutton has left a woman in New York City, she's an attorney and although we don't see her, she seems to be quite a catch 'on paper'. Dillon is the high school stud, who finds himself running a snowplow business and sleeping with both his high school sweetheart, a stunning married woman played by Lauren Holly, and a sweet attractive girl played by Sorvino. He's in the business with Rappaport who has dated Martha Plimpton for seven years, but has yet to take the plunge and ask to marry her. Max Perlich works for these two guys, and they have a married friend who has avoided the entire question of future with which woman by actually getting married and raising a family. To complicate matters, Uma Thurman comes to town as the cousin of a buddy who runs a bar. Rosie O'Donnell plays the cynical, non-attactive smart ass. There are characters all over the place. Hutton is the center of this film as he's the only one who's gotten out of the town. He, at once, misses and despises his old town, like many of us (or at least me). He begins a friendship with the 13-year-old who moved in next door to his father's house. She's darling, smart, witty, well-read (in fact, much too well-read for a teenager). Hutton finds himself in a kind of dilemma that only has one possible realistic outcome. He mentions to a friend 'I could wait. I could wait nine years. Then she'll be 22 and I'll be 39. That's not so weird, is it?' The teenager is played by Natalie Portman who is sure to break thousands of hearts in the years to come. This is the first movie to honestly approach this little topic. There was humor and heartbreak and deep honesty. We often wonder, what if? If we were closer in age or in location, and these quiet scenes between Portman and Hutton (although Portman is given unrealistically high intelligence) are priceless. The interaction between the males, who are all striving for a perfect woman, is also very good. One character kind of sums up the film when he says:

Look, the supermodels are beautiful girls. A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you've been drinking Jack and Coke all morning. She can make you feel high, full of the single greatest commodity known to man: promise. The promise of a better day. The promise of a greater hope. The promise of a new tomorrow. This particular aura can be found in the gait of a beautiful girl, in her smile, and in her soul. And the way she makes every rotten little thing in life seem like it's gonna be okay. The supermodels, that's all they are, bottled promise. Scenes from a brand new day. Hope dancing in stilleto heels.

A side plot involving a fight is not necessary, but I liked this movie and it made me think afterwards.
Matt Dillon Noah Emmerich Annabeth Gish Lauren Holly Tim Hutton Rosie O'Donnell Max Perlich Martha Plimpton Natalie Portman Michael Rappaport Mira Sorvino Uma Thurman Pruitt Taylor Vince Anne Bobby Richard Bright Sam Robards Directed by Ted Demme
40 critics 6.0 Ebert ***^ Maltin *** Shulgasser * Guthmann 3.0 Benson **^

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