On the cusp of 30, Lola is preparing her
doctoral dissertation and planning her wedding. (She’s an arty Lower Manhattan type, so it’s a destination wedding
in Chiapas.) Expressive Greta Gerwig, odd, mumbly in Greenberg, oddly assertive in Damsels in Distress,
gets a chance to play a sort of normal young woman. But most people only seem normal until you get to know
them, and Lola doesn’t quite know herself, which is what this unromantic
comedy is about. Or, more specifically, it’s
about what happens when her fiancé suddenly dumps her.
Lola comes well
supported with arty side characters, like the stock rom-com raunchy best
friend, an actress starring in the hilariously titled Pogrom! Her other
best friend (Hamish Linklater) is a guy (a singer in what sounds
like a Joy Division cover band), and since he’s not gay, that gets
predictably complicated. But in other ways, it’s unpredictable. What was
most authentic was how breakups can be messy and not all at once. The fiancé doesn’t just go away. Her friends do go away. Lola makes mistakes and spends the movie trying to get back to normal, but in a way that’s more funny than mopey. In tone, the movie is about halfway between independent and mainstream.
viewed 6/12/12 7:30 at Ritz East [PFS screening] and reviewed 6/13–19/12
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