Kimberly (1999)

best movie i've ever seen.

A different way of telling a story

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I like to have someone to root for,even in a romantic comedy. For the first half of this picture, I didn't have that. The woman was a player, the men were either obnoxious idiots, or disengaged losers, and there was little character development to most of them.That's why I clicked out of netflix at the halfway point. But I wound up giving it another chance the next day and watched the second half. OK, it redeemed itself. Just barely, but I'll give it some credit.I liked the concept: Four grown buddies who bond over rowing on the Delware River and find both love and themselves.Philadelphia looked absolutely great, if that's where it was actually filmed.There were some questionable morality issues, but they resolved themselves for the most part by the end.Sean Astin was his usual self. Not much of a stretch there. If you like his general routine, you will like him here. (Carefree, blue collar, slovenly, short guy) Gabrielle Anwar is about 7 years past her prime beauty era from Scent of a Woman and For Love or Money. Now she is also speaking in a British accent, which I think is her normal voice. (she played Americans in those other two films) In this film, she is at times wiry, and shows her age in terms of forehead wrinkles and some anguished facial expressions toward the end. Nevertheless, she is appealing, and you can understand why the guys like her.I liked the last scene very much. Without spoiling it, you see that the men have found their piece of the happiness pie.

so let me get this straight... these 4 guys from philly "all" bang their rowing instructor... OK, i can buy that, it's pretty believable. when they find out, one calls her a slut (even though he was involved in another relationship, and cheated with her, but then, i think she new he had a long term live-in girlfriend when she slept with him), and the other guy tries to break his face for it, because he's sure he is in love with her. spoiler---- the other two didn't even actually have sex with her, though one thought he did, and the other is just so damned gentle, sweet, and nice, he pretended to have done it, to make his friends feel better, since he was so damned superior to them... then they all decide to be there for her, support her through the pregnancy, and play daddy... no one even asked for a DNA test? righhhhht and of course it turns out to be the guy who loves her who is the father, because good things happen to pretty girls in movies.we're totally glossing over the part where they won a row race with only the scantest bits of training...OK, so the plot is really not truly set in this world... so what, it's a movie. the settings are excellent, and made me super homesick for philly (probably because they avoided showing how damn dirty most of the city is) the casting truly wasn't bad, nor the acting as bad as some people on here are accusing it of having been. Jason Lewis portrayed old philly money perfectly, as did the folks who played his parents. Sean Astin was a perfect rendition of at least a half a dozen guys i knew from back home...so the plot didn't sell me, the acting wasn't too bad...guys, there could be worse movies to get stuck watching with your girl...

This story seems very nice on the surface. Kimberly is nice to all the guys, whereas in most romantic movies the guys are not as nice to the gals.When I looked below the surface a bit, though, I realized that I have good reason to question Kimberly's behavior. Assuming you watch the movie, just consider what the reaction would be if the story was about one guy and four gals and the guy treated the women the way that Kimberly treats the four men in this movie.

On another level "Kimberly" explores the actual idea of simultaneous multiple partner relationships, and seeks to peek below some taboos. That's cool. But it doesn't go at all deep. It's all formulaic female wish fulfillment -- commit through competition, one full man out of four -- and no real dynamics or exploration of motivations, true drives, and what can work, and can't, for any period of time.Meanwhile the prevailing social climate is framed by the most virile, intelligent and attractive of the four guys announcing to the college class he is teaching that it is a new age, a new dawn between the sexes, with independent women, and dependent men. Interestingly, and tellingly, he turns out to not be "the one". Probably because he wouldn't work as the dependent. Not really. But he can announce and appear to submit to the principal.Ah yes. That's the chick's movie crowd pleasing, "original", "cleaver" theme of this shallow romantic farce.I'm all for looking underneath taboos and social norms, and finding out what's really there, or needs to be there. I'm all for accepting diversity; for letting people do their own thing.Just one question though. Would any of you care to name the American film of the last decade and a half or more, where a man is in a similar position -- with three or four different women at the same time? That is, where that is celebrated, as the reverse is here in "Kimberly", rather than reviled. All of whom came to know about each other, and remained or became fast friends, though not without rivalries for the top edge of affection from the irresistibly man. You know, where as in "Kimberly" he loves each of the two or three or four women really and truly for their different and unique personal qualities and looks, but doesn't want to give any of them up. And where the whole thing is treated as, if not for everyone, still intriguing, adorable, interesting, and heartwarming.I'll give you a clue. It doesn't exist. Not in the last fifteen years, anyway. Not remotely. On the other hand, films which sympathetically treat or rather celebrate women at the center of several men's competing and then co-existing love interests, well beyond the initial "courtship" or getting to know you stage, are becoming increasingly common. See e.g. "Splendor", released in the same year as Kimberly. It takes the same idea as Kimberly even further. It's also a considerably edgier movie, though still most definitely feminist correct -- or actually, even more so.This is despite the fact that everyone who knows anything (and isn't a blinkered ideologist) knows that two woman threesomes are a central male fantasy, not just in America but everywhere. (Actually, polygamy has been a reality and not just a fantasy in much of the world through most of history, for more wealthy or high status men.) Exploring how it could work in contemporary American post feminist culture is hardly old had -- it would be ground breaking. Yet where is it? It's the great feminist taboo.Oh, I can imagine that a two women, one man menage-a-trois set in contemporary American culture could hit the screens soon. But for it to be "avant" or "edgy", one or both women would have to have the clear balance of power -- as Kimberly in the film of that name, and Victoria in Spendor unequivocally do. How, when it's changed to a one man, two or more women situation? Simple, make both women not a little, but predominantly gay. Hey, that could take male emasculation in feminist dominated American media culture to a new level. The one in the center then becomes the bi woman, or both of them on an alternating basis, if neither are dyke, lesbo only types. Something like that does occur for a while in "Slaves of the Underground" (1997), before the lesbian draw wins out completely and the male is left all alone. But hey, he is admired for his lapdog affection for lesbian power.Anything but having one male in a predominately hetero loving and involved three or more way. THAT would be unthinkable. Shudder. In America that is. In Europe, especially France or Spain, it's a different story.