Stars:
**
Rating: R for language
and sexual suggestion
Run
Time: 1
hour, 30 minutes
Fans of the
surreal may enjoy this highly stylized take on a day in the life of a group of
walking wounded longing for love and affection. Miranda July writes, directs
and stars in the Sundance Special Jury Prize winner as our quirky heroine, a
budding performance artist named Christine who falls for her own Prince Charming
(John Hawkes as Richard); a confused shoe salesman who lights his own hand on
fire while his wife is in the process of leaving him.
Richard and
Christine are the axis around which the rest of the characters spin; Richard’s
lonely sons (who find solace on randy internet chat rooms), a snooty art
curator with a hidden agenda and a pair of flirtatious teens testing their
sexual prowess on anyone willing to take notice.
July
establishes a fragile tension that’s both disquieting and hopeful but its
poetic nature is abstract in the extreme, never fully settling on a dedicated theme. Visual construction is intriguing;
performances earnest but raw and suggesting an uncomfortable vulnerability.