Beautiful girls

take everything

I watched this film from 1996 again.

As good as when I first saw it.

Timothy Hutton (a great actor who won an Oscar for Ordinary people) plays Willie, a struggling piano player in the big city, returning home to his high school reunion.

He's conflicted about love and work.
Meets up with his high school friends who have taken different paths.

The happy family man.
The unfulfilled jock (Matt Dillon) who dreams of former glory but is stuck, fooling around with another guy's wife.
The friend who obsesses about women and their wily ways.

The film is about this group of friends and their attitudes to the women in their lives.

Rosie O' Donnell plays another high school friend, a feminist who schools the guys on what they're doing wrong.

And Natalie Portman plays Willie's fourteen year old neighbour, a self-described "old soul", with whom he has a real connection and whose impertinent questions prompt him to think about his life.

Their scenes are brilliant and poignant IMO.

Great cast. and an overall great film.

santana75

It's one of my favourite movies. It's the cinematic equivalent of a warm blanket on a cold night. Although I keep waiting for the day to come when the woke brigade come after this film and claim that willie is Grooming natalie Portman's character. It'll be a sad day if this does happen but I wouldn't be surprised.

TheIrishGrover

Love this film. Every single cast member knocking it out of the park. From Timothy Hutton to Rosie O'Donnell and, of course, Portman. The connection between Hutton and Portman was fantastic and heartbreaking. Especially for her:

"I'm your Pooh Bear. The end of the story is that Christopher Robin outgrows Pooh"... "That's the saddest thing I ever heard"...... "I'm jealous of a 12 year-old kid on a bike"

To Uma Thurman.

The secondary cast is simply amazing too.You know every single one. Without looking it up on IMDb there's Fraiser's dad as a quiet man trying to get on with life after wife dying years ago, David Arquette I think as Hutton's younger brother. Quite quiet and still living at home. Even down to the bar tender: That guy who's in everything and always playing a dodgy guy (When you see him you'll go "Oh THAT guy") He's fantastic. His niece walks into the bar. All the guys stop and gawp: "Holy crap, that's your niece? Is she single?""What do you think? She was BORN with a boyfriend, numbnuts"

Personally, I always thought it was Hutton. Portman and Thurman's best performances.


I'm still waiting to use that "Good Night Sweet Girl" line

An understated absolute gem!

santana75

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

I'm still waiting to use that "Good Night Sweet Girl" line

An understated absolute gem!

I've used that line.......and let me tell you it is powerful. Like kryptonite on women. It reduces them to jelly