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PUCCINI FOR BEGINNERS
Written & Directed by: Maria Maggenti.
Produced by: Eden H. Wurmfeld, Gary Winick & Jake Abraham.
Director of Photography: Mauricio Rubinstein.
Edited by: Susan Graef.
Music: Terry Dame.
Released by: Strand Releasing.
Country of Origin: USA. 81 min. Not Rated.
With: Elizabeth Reaser, Justin Kirk, Gretchen Mol, Jennifer Dundas, Julianne Nicholson & Tina Benko.

Using stereotypes to poke fun at stereotypes, writer/director Maria Maggenti scores points about male/female roles and romantic expectations, but mostly creates an extended comic episode of cable TV’s The L Word.

A lesbian’s point of view is central here, unlike the sexually curious romantic triangles of Kissing Jessica Stein and the British Imagine Me & You. The charming Elizabeth Reaser stars as commitment-phobic Allegra, on the rebound from Samantha (Julianne Nicholson) and now in love with both a straight guy who shares her love of opera, Philip (Justin Kirk), and a dabbling straight woman, Gretchen Mol’s Grace. The element that is supposed to make this a contemporary homage to classic screwball comedies, as symbolized by Allegra’s fondness for such films as Holiday, is that Philip and Grace are former lovers. This coincidence is introduced in a confrontation in the prologue, with the rest of the film a flashback with routine Carrie Bradshaw-like narration as well as the droll touches of passers-by commenting on Allegra’s complicated relationships.

Though the men seen in the background seem to be stuck in a frat house, Philip is a sexually secure intellectual, but his specialty in Kant is used for too many puns (and how does someone become an assistant professor in the philosophy department at Columbia without a PhD?) Allegra’s friends are caricatures such as a humorless feminist editor, a lipstick lesbian ex, and a supportive straight woman. Mol’s fresh Doris Day appeal worked well in The Notorious Bettie Page, but here the only way her clingy, nagging naïf could be a believable investment banker is through an expertise in pork bellies. Nora Lee Mandel
February 2, 2007