Seven Girlfriends (2000) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)
One of the pleasures of doing this is getting to see some worthwhile films that never make it to theatrical distribution, like "Angel's Dance" and "Picking up the Pieces", and this warm and sincere romantic comedy.

The movie opens as Tim Daly is with his current girlfriend when he gets a call from a previous lover. She is calling from her car, wearing a wedding dress, fleeing her wedding because she still thinks she's in love with Daly. Unfortunately, during the course of this conversation , she is killed in a violent traffic accident.
This gets Daly to thinking about his life, the fact that he can't seem to form a permanent bond with anyone, and he asks his current girlfriend to marry him. She says no, fully aware that he's just reacting to his grief over the other girl's death. This shatters him again, especially when she dumps him the next morning. All this happens on a Wednesday, and he takes off the rest of the time between then and the funeral on Sunday, using the time to visit all of his ex-girlfriends and ask them why they thought things didn't work out.

NUDITY REPORT
none of the seven girlfriends got naked, but the best friend of one of the girlfriends (acxtress Jennifer Gibson) seduced Daly on the night before his wedding! Good scene, bare breasts, but very dark.
The premise sounds a bit too much like "High Fidelity", but the two movies don't really have much in common. "Hi Fi" has an edge, and this film has a mushy, but entertaining core. Daly is making a sincere attempt to evaluate his mistakes, not attempting some self-justification.

I thought it was a helluva good romantic comedy, for a couple reasons:

Great script. One of the most cohesive and interesting scripts since "The Red Violin". (1) The film does a remarkable job at making the dialogue funny, yet honest. (2) The characters are always doing something interesting as background to the chat. For example, Daly is a chef, and his special trick is the ability to cook without an oven. What will he use next - the dishwasher, the radiator of his car, a light bulb? Clever, imaginative stuff, frosting on the cake. (3) Every time you think the script is going someplace predictable, it flies off into a different and more honest direction. (4) The script does an absolutely beautiful job at tying the ends of its world together, not with absurd coincidences, but in logical links between the girlfriends caused by credible elements of Daly's own personality. (5) Good job at balancing sentiment, grief, and humor. That's not an easy thing to do.

Good performing as well. Some of these people are terrific at this light, sincere, sitcom banter. I thought Daly did great, even out-Hanksing Hanks, but my favorite was Melora Hardin as the most appealing of the girlfriends, an insomniac architect who writes songs and sings to herself when she can't sleep. And the girl can really sing. Daly also sings quietly, but effectively, in a brief duet. Other past flames include Olivia D'Abo, Mimi Rogers, Jami Gertz, Elizabeth Pena, and Katy Selverstone.

Passing comment - Daly is certainly a well-preserved specimen. He is 45, looks much younger. (He's playing a 36 year old in the film)

DVD info from Amazon.

  • In addition to being a good movie, it's also a good DVD. Good transfer of a letterboxed 1.85 film, with deleted scenes, a gag reel, and full-length commentary
Eventually, everything loops back to the funeral of the woman who seems to have been his life's true love. His current girlfriend, regretting their split, also shows up at the funeral after chasing him through several past relationships. I'm happy to say that absolutely nothing turns out the way you expect it to. As a brief spoiler example, when he goes to the coffin in a very tender moment to tell the dead girl what he could never tell her, it turns out not to be a tender moment, but comedy. She talks back and explains that the only reason he feels like he loves her is because she's dead, and it's always a too-easy solution to love someone's memory. Meanwhile, he's looking around at everyone else, wondering if they can see and hear her. (Of course, all this only happened in his mind). Then, he actually summons up the courage to tell his current girlfriend the unpleasant truth even though she's driven through hell and high water to find him. Ultimatelu, he tries to move on to a more honest solution.

It won't offer you profound revelations, but it's 90 minutes of damned good sitcom. Not the edgy type of sitcom, but the more sentimental type. You might say that this film is to Friends as Meet the Parents is to Seinfeld, and in fact the writer/director, Paul Lazarus, has directed just about every good sitcom in the past 15 years.

The Critics Vote

  • Apollo 65.

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 7.1, Apollo users 74/100. That's pretty much where I would put it as well.
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a B-.

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