A bad case of overexposure

mikeg994

I was prepared to dislike this film. I feel somehow that too much film has been exposed in and around New York for its own good. I thought: yet another story about the big city and the so called "beautiful" people. Haven't Woody Allen and many others done movies like this enough already? Apparently not.

Isabel is a photographer living with her boyfriend, Jonathan and they are planning a big wedding. Jonathan is Jewish and she is a "shiksa" as his Rabbi rather crudely puts it, but that is not the problem. As it gradually becomes clear, Jonathan has been leading a double life. A British journalist who is writing a piece about a famous gay photographer is going about on assignment to talk to people he knew and about a forthcoming book of homo-erotic art photographs. And one of them is Jonathan.

Eventually things unravel for Jonathan who is trying to make some kind of transition. Meanwhile Isabel seems vaguely unhappy in her relationship with Jonathan, perhaps because of his sexual ambivalence or perhaps because of wedding jitters and a fear of commitment. They seem to be drifting apart anyway, Jonathan and Isabel. She passes up a wonderful opportunity to work as a photojournalist overseas and gets canned from her portrait studio job because of her wedding plans. It has just royally gummed up her life. Meanwhile her mother, Diana (Glenn Close) is a high-powered actress and dramatic arts teacher at Juilliard. Even in New York it is a small world. Diana also knew the Mapplethorpe like photographer and when the gay British journalist helpfully shows her the pictures at a big dinner party and things really hit the fan.

It is an above average film and another New York story. Moral of the story? If you must get naked, for chrissake don't let anyone take pictures. And if you must get married, skip the ceremony. The bigger and more expensive the party the less fun it tends to be for all concerned. As Thoreau once sagely observed "Beware all occasions that require new clothes."

score 7/10

mikeg994 9 September 2008

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1943244/