Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her

Rodrigo Garcia wrote and directed this lovely, subtle film, the latest installment in the chick flick series. It has some regulars: Glenn Close (is she to chick flicks what Gerard Depardieu is to French flicks?), Holly Hunter, Amy Brenneman and Kathy Baker (who were both in The Jane Austen Book Club). The cinematographer is a pretty awesome guy who has some diverse movies on his rap sheet, from Like Water for Chocolate to Reality Bites to Meet Joe Black to Burn After Reading. The music is by Edward Shearmur, whom I remember from The Governess, one of the odder movies I've enjoyed despite it's many flaws, mostly due to his soundtrack, which is full of ethereal, beautiful Sephardic music.

The writing, cinematography, and directing only set the stage for the phenomenal acting showcased in the movie. Even Cameron Diaz, who generally irritates me, is startlingly funny. The movie itself is startlingly funny, even during the more tragic stories. So these are the things I love about Things You Can Tell, in order of importance:

1. The color burning and vignetting during many shots of the movie, most noticeable during Holly Hunter's storyline. I can't describe exactly what feeling it adds, but it's palpable, like some sort of malaise that's creeping down the frame.

2. Cameron Diaz's character. Diaz does a pretty great job of reading the lines, but the real credit goes to that fantastic writing! Every single character, no matter how minor, is so carefully etched. It's easy to see that the director is the son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It really shows.

3. The loose-but-engaging interconnectedness of the stories. It irritates me when the interconnectedness of vignette-movies is too contrived, but it also irritates me when the interconnectedness is haphazard and uninteresting (see Paris, je t'aime). This movie strikes the perfect balance.

4. The male characters are neither perfect, nor villains. There is often a danger in chick flicks of the male characters being too one-dimensional. This doesn't necessarily bother me because in the rest of movies female characters are often one-dimensional. Garcia, however, has made every character interesting and nuanced, without giving too much away, because, after all, this is a movie about Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her, not by her telling you everything about herself.

5. I can't lie, I get such a thrill from the midget story, "Someone for Rose." I just can't stop giggling.