Beautiful Girls (film)

Beautiful Girls

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ted Demme
Produced by Cary Woods
Written by Scott Rosenberg
Starring Matt Dillon
Lauren Holly
Timothy Hutton
Rosie O'Donnell
Martha Plimpton
Natalie Portman
Michael Rapaport
Mira Sorvino
Uma Thurman
Music by David A. Stewart
Cinematography Adam Kimmel
Edited by Jeffrey Wolf
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release dates
  • February 9, 1996 (1996-02-09)
Running time
112 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $10.6 million[1]

Beautiful Girls is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Ted Demme from a screenplay written by Scott Rosenberg, starring Matt Dillon, Lauren Holly, Timothy Hutton, Rosie O'Donnell, Martha Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino and Uma Thurman.

Plot

Willie Conway goes home for his high school class reunion in Knights Ridge, Massachusetts. He is at a crossroads in his life and cannot decide if he should marry his girlfriend. He cannot decide if he should quit his music and take a job as a salesman. Over the course of the film, he spends time with his old friends who are all at similar crossroads. By the end they all discover what it is that they want. (see character details, under "Cast" section below, for other plot developments)

Cast

The men

The women

Minor characters

The band The Afghan Whigs has a cameo appearance in the film. Greg Dulli, the band's lead singer, was close friends with Ted Demme.

Production

Screenwriter Scott Rosenberg was living in Needham, MA, waiting to see if Disney would use his script for Con Air. He said in an interview, "It was the worst winter ever in this small hometown. Snow plows were coming by, and I was just tired of writing these movies with people getting shot and killed. So I said, 'There is more action going on in my hometown with my friends dealing with the fact that they cannot deal with turning 30 or with commitment'—all that became Beautiful Girls."[2]

Originally, James L. Brooks was interested in directing the film, according to actress Leslie Mann, who auditioned for a role but was not cast.[3]

Ted Demme had the entire cast come to Minneapolis and live together for two to three weeks so that they could bond. Filming took place in the Twin Cities Metro Area communities of Edina, Marine-on-St. Croix and Stillwater, with Demme wanting to make sure that the setting was a character unto itself. He "wanted to make it look like it's Anytown USA, primarily East Coast. And I also wanted it to feel like a real working class town".[4] To this end, Demme drew inspiration from Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978). "The first third of the film is really an amazing buddy movie with those five actors. You could tell they were best friends, but they all had stuff amongst them that was personal to each one of them".[4]Filmed in my hometown, in the county seat of Stillwater, Minnesota & the 1st town of Marine; the County where 3M, Imation are located. The lake, Ice Fishing sceen's seem to be filmed in front of my friends homes in Birchwood.

The area mixes the first summer home's of the Who's, Who of Summit Ave. St. Paul, early 3M Stockholder's inventing magnetic tape, radiology & ?the poor senses, of the new scientest, business executive's, with the people who use to run the local Wildwood Park, Amusemment Park Carnival. A few of the Laverne & Shirly, Italian East Side, (Mat Dayman, ) started to make it feud, our school,

& with the excitement of the Winesteine's NYC & Hollywood users of 3M magnetice's mismanaged, Willies 2 lake homes, & peace around the former beautiful girls lake, in the snow..T It will be nice when the Weinstein's buy some right's to a story; then just mess up the many level of old friends, & new bad, show we's.

October Road

Scott Rosenberg co-produced and co-wrote for the 2007-2008 TV series October Road. The show is loosely based on

what happened after Beautiful Girls came out and how his friends reacted to a movie about their lives. Both Beautiful Girls and October Road take place in the fictional Massachusetts town of Knights Ridge, and have similar characters, jobs, plot lines.

Soundtrack

Beautiful Girls: Music from the Motion Picture
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Released January 30, 1996
Genre Soundtrack
Length 57:16
Label Elektra
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]

Track listing

  1. Roland Gift—"That's How Strong My Love Is" 6:18
  2. Afghan Whigs—"Be for Real" 4:16
  3. Howlin' Maggie—"Easy to Be Stupid" 4:51
  4. Billy Paul—"Me and Mrs. Jones" 4:48
  5. Satchel—"Suffering" 4:49
  6. Chris Isaak—"Graduation Day" 3:10
  7. Pete Droge & the Sinners—"Beautiful Girl" 4:34
  8. Ween—"I'll Miss You" 2:56
  9. Afghan Whigs—"Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" 5:21
  10. The Spinners—"Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" 4:31
  11. Kiss—"Beth" 2:46
  12. King Floyd—"Groove Me" 3:01
  13. The Diamonds—"The Stroll" 2:31
  14. Neil Diamond—"Sweet Caroline" 3:24

Additional tracks (not included on soundtrack)

Reception

Box office

The film was released on February 9, 1996 in 752 theaters, grossing $2.7 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $10.5 million in North America.[1]

Critical response

The film received fairly positive reviews and currently has a 78% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "What's nicest about the film is the way it treasures the good feelings people can have for one another."[6] In the Washington Post, Desson Howe praised Natalie Portman's performance: "As a self-described 'old soul' who connects spiritually with Hutton (they're both existential searchers), she's the movie's most poignant and witty presence."[7]

However, Jack Mathews, in the Los Angeles Times, wrote that the film was "about as much fun as a neighborhood bar on a Tuesday night. Its crisis: not much happening."[8] In her New York Times review Janet Maslin wrote that Natalie Portman got the film's "archest dialogue", and called her "a budding knockout, and scene-stealingly good even in an overly showy role."[9]

References

  1. 1 2 "Beautiful Girls (1996)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  2. Alexander, Peter. "Scott Rosenberg: Off to a Beautiful Start". The Best Video Guide.
  3. Ryan, Kyle (September 28, 2007). "Random Roles: Leslie Mann". The Onion A.V. Club. Retrieved February 13, 2008.
  4. 1 2 Griffin, Dominic (1996). "An Interview With Ted Demme, Director of Beautiful Girls". Film Threat.
  5. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r231045
  6. Ebert, Roger (February 9, 1996). "Beautiful Girls review". Chicago Sun-Times (RogerEbert.com). Retrieved February 13, 2008.
  7. Howe, Desson (February 9, 1996). "Beautiful Girls review". Washington Post. Retrieved February 13, 2008.
  8. Mathews, Jack (February 9, 1996). "High School Buddies Take Stock in 'Girls'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 4, 2008. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  9. "Beautiful Girls review". New York Times. February 9, 1996. Retrieved March 12, 2015.

External links

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