little bitty girl

I've been meaning to write about this movie that I saw two nights ago with my friend, Jenny. (Hmmm....do you notice that almost every other Canadian girl under the age of fourty is either a Jen, Jenny or Jennifer? I seem to have a lot of "Jen" friends...) I hadn't heard too much about it, but Jenny said it was supposed to be interesting and I am so glad that I agreed to watch it.

The trailer almost shows it as a light-hearted movie but it is so much deeper than that. The movie does have some very funny parts, but it is mostly poignant, sad and real. All the characters were full and complex, except for maybe Alicia Witt, but I think it's because she wasn't in the movie all that much.

Joan Allen, played the spurned suburban wife and I liked that you could actually see that she was an older woman. Our society makes too much out of women who are in their forties, who look like they are twenty. (aka Demi Moore - Lady, it's not real! It's called lots of plastic surgery and botox. Embrace your natural beauty) She is sad, caring, confused but mostly she is so mad, mad at the world and her husband who has left her to look after her four teenage girls.

Her daughters played by Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell and Alicia Witt are all excellent in their various roles. Keri Russell is Felicity no more, she is so beautiful and luminescent in every scene that you simply cannot take your eyes off her. Up and comer, Evan Rachel Wood, who narates most of the movie was simply outstanding as the youngest child, watching from the inside-out as her family tries to cope individually with their loss.

Most unexpected was Kevin Costner, as a has been baseball player, now radio dj. I have never been a big fan of Kevin Costner, like Waterworld? How much did he get paid for that piece of shit? But in this role, it was the first I have come to see why he has ever been nominated for Academy Award. He plays the bumbling man, coming to terms for the first time in his life with responsibity of a family and the prospect of love to perfection.

In other words, go see this movie. You'll be pleasantly surprised.