Some Girls (1988)

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Gabriella D'Arc (Jennifer Connelly) left the semester for her sick granny and hasn't returned. Michael (Patrick Dempsey) is overjoyed to be invited to meet her family in Quebec City for her birthday over Christmas. Her eccentric atheist father writes in the nude. There are her sisters Simone and Irenka. Irenka's boyfriend is handyman Nick. They're joined by Father Walter, Gabby's religious mother's former love. Michael is discombobulated after quickly insulting Gabby's mom by expressing sympathy and Gabby telling him that, "I'm not in love with you anymore." It's a week of strange family drama. Granny is delusional and thinks that he is her husband Michael.This is a cold movie and I don't mean the snowy Quebec City. Jennifer Connelly is an enchanting mercurial presence. I don't like her character in this movie. Patrick Dempsey is a pathetic puppy chasing after her. While I don't like his character either, I certainly understand him. Damn, the girl is hot, but most of this movie leaves me cold. It's definitely not actually funny. It's the unknowable nature of women and it leaves me unsatisfied.

Want to see Patrick Dempsey naked?...uhhh..Some Girls... Not now, back then. Back in 1988, when 20 years old Patrick Dempsey and 18 years old, Jennifer Connelly played together in "Some Girls" a different teen movie. Well, for the boys which are keen on seeing a sexy 18 years old Jennifer Connelly chased around by the cute doctor from Grey's Anatomy, in a mahogany castle with very little clothes on, then this is it.Well get your girl, wife etc.. and turn in for a good movie to remember how it was. Not now, back then.Although it hadn't score big on IMDb for a movie from 1988, when IMDb was not around to keep score, the movie is not what you'd expect. Not some soapy soap opera or a teen comedy that you'll easily predict, this is painted in tones of brown and whites with a sparkle of green.Patrick Dempsey, which in my opinion I wouldn't call exactly beautiful, (not now, back then) is the main actor and plays a troubled young men who gets the *friendzone of the mothers of friendzones.*(for the uninitiated, friendzone = you get this from the girl that you love desperately and all she wants from you is to be just friends)Looking back at his career it's like he chooses these type of guys who eventually get out of the zone. As if he wants us to know that yes, it's possible. (Can't buy me love / Made of Honor / Enchanted etc )Jennifer Connelly is exactly as i thought, because this is the first movie that you should see with her: the angel with cold ice heart that every teen boy had a crush on, sometime in his growing up years. She was 18, i don't know if i mentioned that. For a more mature representation in the same era, I strongly suggest this movie: The Hot spot.The directing is beautiful because of the tones he chooses. The shots are naturally and flow easily with in the story which looks like it's pulled out from a book or maybe they have done such a good job that you think this was from a book.Other works from MR. Hoffman will let you find that he does have a different eye on these kind of movies.Nevertheless, eye candy is there for boys and girls as well, but the film does know when to turn serious and when to play with your smile.IMDb was not around back then so, some of the good movies are getting sided because of this. I know life it's happening and stuff, but some of them deserve just a little more than a 6 mark.PS: HUGE ONE!Mr. Dempsey who played the most romantic movies of the 90's and 00's earns my appreciation for the way he does that and how easily he can make it seem, but also for... and I do mean i look up at him for this... for some years now, he is racing. Yes, he has a team and the works.Imagine, just imagine if all the other actors will not pussy out and start participating in sports like him.Enjoy!

This was on MGM's channel one Saturday morning a couple weeks ago and I saw Jennifer Connelly was in it and so I thought I'd give it a watch. A very insightful look into the subculture that develops within families that are steeped in a heavily ethno-centric background like French Catholic Quebec, which is the setting for this film. Having been raised part of my early childhood in the United States and then spending nearly all of my teen years in Northern Alberta Canada in a culture that was primarily French and Ukrainian, I can relate on many levels to what Patrick Dempsey's character went through in the film. I'm guessing any young high school or college age male (who was or is horny) could relate to the endless array of confusing messages and signals being sent from the object of your affection. Even as I write this, I feel I can't fully articulate into words the strange codependency that develops and exists with women portrayed in this family. Family is used as a weapon many times to block sexual advances by Dempsey's character. What I think he learns in a strange way, that it took me many more years to find out (including being married) is that women can turn it on and off like a faucet while men are resigned to the idea of walking around much of the time like living volcanoes ready to explode. I do have to say, Dempsey's internal dialogue is quite good at times and really adds to what the viewer feels as well as he or she watches the film.I apologize for this review not getting into particular plot points or other helpful criticisms, but I think other reviewers have covered that well. The only reason I gave this 8 stars instead of something higher was that half the actors didn't attempt a French accent and that was a bit jarring. That seemed like a large oversight for something that should have been easily fixed, but it is possible Jennifer Connelly and others tried the accents and they just didn't work. If that was the case, the kudos to the director for not forcing that into the film.

Just when you think you know where this movie is headed, it goes off in an unexpected direction. Michael, played by Patrick Dempsey, visits his former college girlfriend over Christmas in Quebec and quickly becomes entwined in her family's eccentric ways. Michael's quest to rekindle his romance with Gaby pushes him to the limits of total frustration and leads to several hilarious situations involving Gaby, her sisters, her perpetually naked father, and the family dog!This plot would normally be enough for most movies, but the whole tone of the film changes when Gaby's grandmother is introduced. Granny confuses Michael with her long dead husband and the sheer strength of her performance leads the movie into a whole new and unexpectedly spiritual direction. The scenes between Michael and the Grandmother are touching and make an ordinary movie into a truly special one.