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Louise Lasser and Robert Modicka put their hearts into the story of a 60-ish couple trying to make a go of it, regardless of his friends' ridicule and her low self-esteem. Their honest acting nearly gives this failed attempt at a Woody Allen-style episode of Friends needed humanity. The problem? Lasser and Modicka are not the lead actors in this film, whose tritely punning title is about the extent of writer-director Amos Kollek's wit. Anna Thomson is the ostensible heroine in this story about the denizens of a New York City diner and their romantic travails. The 35-year-old waitress, unlucky in life and love, seems such a candidate for long-term therapy that her unconventional outlook isn't so much profoundly sympathetic as simply pathetic. Kollek also stretches credulity by allowing a sex-show performer to melt at the badgering appearances of one of her "clients," the creepiest of the whole lot. --Kevin Filipski ... Read more

Reviews (7)

this was really good
The video cover said this is like the show "Friends if it actually were in New York" -- except no one is really friends with anyone. That said, it follows the interesting path of Bella, a diner waitress approaching her 35th birthday who has been in an affair with a married man since she was 23. (Bella is way skinny and attractive in that guppy-faced way most 1990s models had, but then it's an independent film.) Also no one ever dates anyone their own age. That's fine but EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the entire movie??? Please.

The loneliness in an urban space, coupled with ther fact that you actually know a lot of people, you just are not close to them, is very true. the stuttering streetwalker from Poland is an especially gripping charcater. The fact that the elderly gentleman Seymour wants to have coffee with Wanda from the live girl show and treat her to an old-fashioned date is way trite.

But what happens to Bella is interesting, varied and will hold your attention to the end. You end up feeling good by the time the closing credits roll.

Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow
This movie was filled with stereotypes and characters that just didn't make me care. The editing was self-indulgent and slow and there were several scenes that should have ended up on the cutting room floor. It is an uncomfortable movie with little warmth and an overdose of angst. The quirks that they tried to work in for the characters to make them human were very contrived and made me conscious I was watching a movie rather than allowing me to get involved in the story and characters as people. The actors did their best - but couldn't overcome the flaws in directing, editing and story line.

Louise Lasser does it again!!!
Louise Lasser is as brilliantly funny in this movie as she was in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman over 25 years ago. Although she has a supporting role, she fills the screen with her familiar style of comedy and sweetness. I recommend this film just because of her.

Sparkling
... I have to write about this glorious film as the average rating is way below acceptable. I saw it twice in one week, living in Greece this spring. This is an unusual, refreshing film about Bella, an unusual mid-30's NY woman, who refuses to live typically and a whole set of Big Apple characters she interacts with who share her life and her free spirit. How can you not adore a woman who throws her perfumed just-out-of-the-tub lush towels out the window to tantalize and warm the hobos under her apartment, a woman who still cares for her unkind older lover whom the camera has no sympathy for, and who herself has an elegant compassion for the colourful characters she waits on in her diner workplace or who interact with them? These include the exhibitionist peep show intellectual, the older guy with the shyness of an adolescent, as well as the taxi driver/closet writer and young father who is overawed by Bella's unique outlook and femininity, and you should be itching to know about the fantastical 5-D fairy tale outcome to a chance confrontation in the heroine's NY life. I can't wait for the video...when's it coming out?

I found it kind of strange... and not in a good way..
Normally, i like these kinds of movies, multiple characters who are all very different and weird or out there.. but I don't know.. i guess i never really got into this film completely.

First of all, I could never get past the looks of the main character. Normally, Im sort of sickened by those movies who have to have a beautiful heroine--and i don't know if Bella was supposed to be beautiful or not. She looked as if she was LA beautiful, but not really. She basically looked like a walking plastic surgery patient. Full blown lips, she must have had a face lift (it was distracting cause it looked like she had a difficult time talking) really skinny, really tall, with inflated breasts. I didn't understand, but her looks were distracting to me..

Another thing was that the May/December relationships in the movie were all over the place. I don't disagree with them, and i don't deny that they are out there, but it seems that's all there were! Bella was involved in an older married man, her boyfriend was sleeping with a 65 year old woman, and a regular at the diner started dating a dancer half his age.. I guess it would have made more sense to me if they had relationships across the map, not just older/younger ones.

I saw it in the LA weekly and there was a quote saying "What Friends would be like if they really lived in New York" I don't know about that.. it wasn't hilariously funny and the characters weren't ones that you fell in love with. It jumped around too much and some scenes had no point to them. Like when Bella undresses talking on the phone to her mother and a young boy stands outside watching her. It could have done just as well with her on the phone. I guess what im saying is that certain scenes didn't really go anywhere. But, there was some light humor and interesting parts.. maybe just wait for the rental? ... Read more

Reviews (2)

This movie is the anti-Pretty Woman...it's reality
This film is about as gutwrenchingly real and gritty as you can get. This is NOT Pretty Woman, this is what the life of a prostitute is really like, no glamor, no fluff, no Richard Gere. Fiona's story, and those of her friends and her mother, is the story of too many women and children in our society, and unless you have no soul, this is very hard viewing. I watched this movie on late night television yesterday and the reviewer gave it one star. Well, I guess some people can't relate to the truth...

The "actors" in this film appear to be "real" people from the streets. Their honesty in portraying what their world is like can only be commended. Kudos to each and every one of them and to the director as well for having the guts to do this film. The movie has a documentary feel, in the sense that you can hear the camera whirring in the background, there is no dramatic sound track, no fake moaning when one of the prostitutes has to perform a sexual act. The danger and the disempowerment these women must deal with, their heartbreaking search for love, and the disillusionment and sense of hopelessness they face are all powerfully portrayed, as is their underlying rage. So, why, you may ask, would you want to watch such a depressing movie? Because maybe it will give you a little more insight, a little more compassion, and perhaps help you to understand that fellow human being you walk past on the street. I especially recommend this film to men who frequent prostitutes...if you think they're having fun or that they are not "a person", think again...

I highly recommend this movie for the brave of heart.

WIERD MOVIE - but strangely good.
if you want to see a semi softcore porn involving Fiona- who was abandoned by her prostitute mother, only to be mollested throughout her childhood in foster care, and eventualy becomes a crack smoking, heroine shooting, sometimes lesbian, prostitute, (who eventualy almost has sex with her mother when they unknowingly reunite the day before she jumps off a building later in life..) its a movie for you. it was actualy VERY true to real life. I dont think most of the people were actors, it looks like they got them off the street. very realistic film. just..... wierd. but a good wierd! oh yeah-its also like as low budget as they come. but that also makes it unique. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very Nice Comedy!!
This Movie is shot on some of the seedy streets of New York City is about an aspiring novelist Schygulla(Hanna Schygulla) as she accidently becomes involved in a real life mystery involving murder and drugs.In one of Alex Balwins first film appearances as a cop trying to catch the drug dealers with special cameo appearances by Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Deborah Harry,this film is a very nice comedy!!

forever lulu
well i had just seen the movie forever lulu and my mother and i loved it so much that we really want to own it and i would love to get it for her as a gift her birthday is coming here in December so if i can find a video 10$and below i will be very happy to make my mother happy thank you have a wonderful day ... Read more