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File this one under "pretty good idea, abysmal execution." Elaine is a 40ish aspiring writer who pays the bills by working for a toilet seat company, presumably as a "go"-fer. Her bill-paying capacity is reduced to zero when she loses even that pathetic job, but the truly disheartening thing about her life is that getting fired from a bad job is the apex of her existence. Her agent tells her that her manuscripts are totally unsellable. She hasn't been laid since the Carter administration, and she's living in a total dump in one of the worst parts of town, which becomes beyond her means after she loses her job! Despair overcomes her. One night, when she is caught in the rain with no umbrella and no money for transportation, all the grief and frustration reaches a crescendo and she tries to shoot herself. And a miracle happens. A couple wanders by, and when they see her waving her gun and babbling hysterically, they assume she is a crazy street person who is mugging them. They hand over their expensive coats and run away. Elaine gets a mink, and some secret information that leads her to a ritzy apartment, a bloody shootout, two suitcases full of money and drugs, and a mysterious photograph of an unknown woman. Elaine takes the suitcases away from the apartment, and considers keeping the booty but, after some deliberation, she decides to play it straight and turn everything over to the cops, along with the full unvarnished version of her story. Her honesty makes her the darling of New York. She gets to repeat her sad life story on all the talk shows, and her new-found celebrity status turns her life completely around. She finds wide fame, riches, and a new love, but not before conducting a search for the mystery woman and encountering some loose ends from the drug bust. There is actually far more to it than that. I've oversimplified and, in fact, the additional complications are the elements that turn the film from a sappy rags-to-riches romance into a comedy, but those elements are too complicated to detail in this sort of forum, and they should be left for you to discover, if it sounds like your kind of film. |
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There are some interesting minor elements interspersed throughout Forever, Lulu.
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| Unfortunately, the film ultimately lacks the minimum essentials of a professional production. The star, German actress Hanna Schygulla, goes through the entire film staring blankly in response to every situation, as if she didn't really understand what was happening. Some of the bit players are even weaker. Writer/director Amos Kollek made a brief acting appearance as the literary agent, and ... well, as an actor, he's roughly on a par with the local used car dealers who do their own commercials. His direction isn't much better. A couple of scenes are so confusing as to be completely incomprehensible. Hanna's ex-boyfriend lets himself into her apartment while she's taking a bath. She hears an intruder and draws a gun which seems to come from underwater in her tub! Setting aside such strange lapses in logic, one must give Kollek his props as a writer. You could take this script, make some minor changes, remake the film with Kate Hudson, and it would play out pretty much like every other Kate Hudson film, and might even become a minor hit. In fact, I might make the same statement about every one of the Amos Kollek scripts I am familiar with. In its present shape, however, Forever, Lulu is the filmmaking equivalent of a top Rolling Stones song covered by a garage band: a good idea presented sincerely and with a lot of heart, but without the necessary capability to make it rock. | |
