All the Real Girls By Rick Curnutte Richard A. Curnutte, Jr. is the Editor of The Film Journal. He has studied English and Film at Ohio University and The Ohio State University. He is a founding member of the Central Ohio Film Critics Association

A love story can be told in any number of ways. David Gordon Green, the director of the supremely accomplished George Washington, begins his somewhere in the middle of the courtship. Noel (Zooey Deschanel) and Paul (Paul Schneider) are dating, but in secret. Paul, a notorious womanizer, is the best friend of Noel's brother, Tip (Shea Whigham). The conundrum the two face lies in Paul's storied past. Tip, who's been Paul's accomplice on many occasions, knows how the rest of Paul's liaisons have turned out: with the girl heartbroken. Indeed, when Tip does find out, it sets him off on a drunken, violent tirade, swearing off the friendship, only to recant later. The romance encounters bumps and bruises, most notably when Noel has a weekend fling with another man. Paul, never having been on the hurt end of a relationship, goes off the deep end.

Green's lovely film (shot by Tim Orr, the D.P. on Green's George Washington, as well as the recent Raising Victor Vargas), explores the machinations of new love, with notable flourishes around its painted edges. Green captures unique moments, sometimes just snapshots, of the small town life surrounding the love story: a three-legged dog hobbling across the street, a field, etc. Green has an amazing eye for externalized beauty and possesses one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary American cinema. Like Wes Anderson's punchy irony, or Steven Soderbergh's notorious commercial/art-house balancing acts, Green's lyrical downhomeness allows for simple details to compliment larger acts of narrative drive.

Paul Schneider (also credited with the film's story) is a complicated actor. He has a bit of Mark Ruffalo's solitary handsomeness, but is much more extroverted with his emotions. He exudes charm and a sly machismo, but seems capable of truly loving someone, if only he knew what love really meant.

Zooey Deschanel, so good as a bit player in other films (she was the only good thing about last year's The Good Girl), is remarkable here. Her expressive, yet pensive, work in this film is about the best acting I've seen all year. She wears Noel like a loose sweater, all feeling and baggy emotions. It's not a performance that calls a great deal of attention to itself, which is exactly why it works so well. Like the rest of Green's set dressing, Deschanel is a perfect mechanism for conveying the well-wrought emotion of the love affair that approaches serenity, but ultimately must settle for a plateau of understanding. There are no grand gestures at the film's end, merely a mutual agreement to carry on, come what may. It's a refreshing approach that pays off splendidly.

As Green's career progresses, it will be interesting to see how this homespun approach evolves. George Washington, for all of its quirks and charms, was a difficult film to love, at least upon an initial viewing. I've since seen it several times and it has grown in significance for me. All the Real Girls is a much more accessible work, though still tonally obtuse in many aspects. It's a beautifully realized film from a major young filmmaker, whose career I look forward to watching.

                                                                 © FILM JOURNAL 2002