cheerful cynicism: Walking and Talking (1996)

7/08/2011

Walking and Talking (1996)

Clearly this picture was taken way after filming.

Walking and Talking is one of the gems I've discovered on Netflix because it was streaming and looked like a decent enough rom-com. And that's pretty much what this movie is: decent enough.

Anne Heche and Catherine Keener play best friends since childhood Laura and Amelia. Laura is engaged to Frank (Todd Field), but is freaking out in an awkward-to-watch-but-unfortunately-relatable-passive-aggressive way by snapping at Frank and developing crushes on random guys including the waiter that always flirts with her (Randall "hot clergyman" Batinkoff) and one of her therapy patients. This plot line is not so fun to watch. The tension is almost ridiculous enough to laugh at, but mostly just makes me feel sad.

I however loved Amelia's plot. She starts to kind of freak out because Laura is engaged. She quits therapy and then starts dating the video store clerk that always asks her out, Bill (Kevin "almost as weird as seeing Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Next Stop Wonderland" Corrigan). They go out a few times--long enough for Amelia to stop calling him "ugly guy"and becomes attracted to him. Let's just say, we've all been there: desperate to go out with someone who is mildly attractive (maybe) and pretend it has real potential. And of course Amelia has a good friend Andrew (Liev "he has curly hair?" Schreiber) who is having phone sex with someone across the country and whom she used to date, but they're still friends and they do stuff together all the time. And her cat has cancer. Things that are endearing only in movie form.

Mostly, there's just so much 90s frumpiness mixed with an unexpected group of actors and accompanied by mellow jams--the most fabulous of which are by Billy Bragg, my new British electric-folk singer. So sit back, enjoy some Billy Bragg and soak in this frumpiness.