April 17, 1998
Fox
Romance, Comedy, Drama
VHS
B+
Based on a book, this is smarter and more complex than the average rom-com. Yes, it has a happy ending (for just about everyone), but the journey there is different than you might expect, particularly in a mainstream film (even of the late '90s).
It's tempting to say that straight guys got Chasing Amy, and straight girls got this movie. That is, in the former an apparent lesbian falls in love with and has sex with a man (only to have their romance threatened by his inability to deal with her bisexual past), while this film has a straight (and pregnant) woman get lots of ballroom dancing, talk, laughs, and cuddling, as well as a potential "mate" to raise her baby with that she gets along with much better than the baby's father. Their romance is broken by the realization that he will never be sexually and romantically involved with her, although they love each other dearly.
The thing is, George is arguably bi as well, since he does seem aroused when he and Nina make out. He may well be more oriented towards men, but it's not as if he doesn't have feelings for women, or at least Nina. The issue is complicated by the undeniable chemistry between 29-year-old Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd (a couple months younger). The two would pair up again, as a married couple, many years later in the disappointing Wanderlust, but they remain a believable "couple" in this movie.
The script and direction never quite resolve this, but ambiguity is OK. As for that happy ending, George is (six years later in the epilogue) a sort of uncle figure to Nina's daughter, and George and Nina are still good (maybe best) friends. He's with the younger man he left Nina for, while she's with the sympathetic black cop she met after what has to be the mildest mugging in film history. (The one in Clueless is more of a nail-biter to watch!) True, the young man's sort of lover Rodney seems to be romantically alone, but he's still part of this "family." (The daughter's father is happy, too, and not really villainized in the movie, which is refreshing.) Rodney is well played by Nigel Hawthorne, who brings out the poignancy of what it's like when the Object of Your Affection cannot return that affection as you'd like.
Other notable supporting cast members are 38-year-old Allison Janney as Nina's stepsister Constance, the first of at least three does-amazing-stuff-with-this-role characters that Janney plays in my film collection Her dry delivery is a treasure! She's paired with Alan Alda, at 62 (and 20 years after Same Time, Next Year) too old for the role (especially since he's playing the father of Nina's six-year-old niece), but still fun in his name-dropping. And there's a fairly early role for 30-year-old Steve Zahn as George's repeatedly engaged brother Frank.
Todd Stockman was an Audience Member in In & Out and plays a dad here. Alba Albanese was a New Yorker in As Good as It Gets and is Woman in Central Park here. School Child George Gearhart King III would be RV Son in Two Weeks Notice, while Iraida Polanco is Carmelita here and would be Rosario there.
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