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She's So Lovely

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France, United States · 1997
Rated R · 1h 40m
Director Nick Cassavetes
Starring Sean Penn, Robin Wright, John Travolta, James Gandolfini
Genre Drama, Romance, Thriller

An errant husband finds himself in a mental hospital while his unbalanced wife raises three children with another man. When he is released after ten years, he sees no reason why he and his ex should not take up where they left off. Can he save their crumbling marriage?

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What are critics saying?

75

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

In all, She's So Lovely is second-best Cassavetes but still one of late summer's more adventurous releases, helped by strong performances from its talented stars and from the great Rowlands in a minor role.

60

Variety by Emanuel Levy

Writer John Cassavetes wants to show that there’s nothing like the purity of first love, but he doesn’t provide his triangle sufficient psychological motivation to ground their otherwise erratic behavior. The script feels incomplete, and is further marred by a missing third act and a lack of discernible point of view.

75

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

She's So Lovely isn't a flawless production, but it's a fitting tribute to John Cassavetes, and a reminder of the many ways that a woman can be under the influence.

75

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

Considering that most movies, even today, don't present a woman's romantic or sexual behavior in anything other than a spirit of judgment, She's So Lovely has to be regarded as something unique.

75

The A.V. Club by Nathan Rabin

At once grittily realistic and hopelessly romantic, She's So Lovely walks a fine line between artiness and pretension, and to its credit, it seldom falters.

75

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

The film has been clobbered with complaints: John Cassavetes, Rowlands and their frequent co-star Peter Falk would have played these roles better; the script is old hat; the improvisatorial style smacks of self-indulgence masked as raw truth. Blah, blah, blah. The detractors should shut up and drink their beer or at least accept She’s So Lovely for what it is: a gift.

75

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

She's So Lovely does not depict choices most audiences will condone, or even understand, but the film is not boring, and has the dread hypnotic appeal of a slowly developing traffic accident (in which we think there will probably be no fatalities).

50

Austin Chronicle by Russell Smith

In essence, the artistic failure of She's So Lovely is traceable to a single, supremely ironic fact: For a story by a writer with so much professed faith in the power of truth to bubble up out of apparent chaos, there's hardly anything here that feels recognizably true.

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