Some Girls

Some Girls is all too aware of its risqué subject matter. It’s the story of a young man (Patrick Dempsey) who visits his sort-of girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) when she splits from school and, subsequently, from his life. Naturally she’s the result of a family of eccentrics, including a frequently nude academic father, an uptight and proper religious mother, and two sisters who both try to seduce the hero. All very well and good for any red-blooded male of the species, and there’s even a subplot with a dying, demented grandmother to give it a smidge of gravitas. But it’s not enough. The future McDreamy is clearly bewildered by the crazy women in this house of weirdos (and by extension, women in general), but the attraction/repulsion dynamic of his encounter with female otherness never really rates a comment; it’s intent is instead to engage in random comic embarrassment and genteel titillation. I wouldn’t have too much of a problem normally but the undercurrent of angst is so palpable beneath the surface of this film that I expect more from this. Director Michael Hoffmann and writer Rupert Walters were more interested in the show of seriousness rather than its actual execution, and one doesn’t take much away from their efforts beyond the suggestion (and occasional delivery) of sex and a classy milieu that hides their basic shallowness. Eventually, the movie has to wrap up the loose ends it’s been juggling for most of its running time and to no-one’s surprise, the capper is unconvincing, if not nonsensical, underscoring the fact that this sort-of watchable movie never had its motives straight from frame one.