SHE'S SO LOVELY (1997) *** Spectacularly uneven film, which may go towards explaining its popularity at Cannes. Painfully bad for nearly half an hour, and the bottom would seem to entirely fall out when Sean Penn shows up without things getting better. The turning point is the dance scene. Not because it's all that great, but because at that point Penn and Nick Cassavetes...they don't actually get across any of what John Cassavetes was trying to do with the script, but they couldn't more articulately have gotten across what he wasn't trying to do. And it's a worthy cluster of sentiments, so they've got your interest back, and this time for good. I can't think of ever seeing Penn worse than during some of his early scenes, but when he suffers forth the monologues of the insanely drunk with engine trouble his is an artistic elevation reserved for very few actors. And it goes on like that-it never stays great, but, like its characters somehow, it keeps greatness well within reach in ways that are impossible to comprehend. I mean, John Travolta even has several extremely powerful scenes, in between falling back into his bozo routine. Harry Dean Stanton cuts through the crap whenever it gets just a little too thick, which is sublime if not entirely unexpected because he's Mack the Knife. I can't think of an actor who's ever been able to do more with a one-word line. Robin Wright Penn's affection for Sean is entirely evident and winning. Kelsey Mulrooney is as flawless as Stanton, in a slight role that clearly doesn't call for everything that she's got, but that is also absolutely essential. The Cassavetes' final scene, I don't think that I'm spoiling anything by mentioning that it involves a stolen bottle of hard liquor, finally divides the audience, mankind, in just the manner that John intended. There are only two ways you can go. There are a million reasons for going either way, but, and they couldn't make it more clear without judgement, you gotta go one way or another because there really are crossroads. Cinematic variation of Kafka's directive, "In the fight between you and the world, back the world."
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