Beautiful Girls (1996)

Plot

New York based musician Willie – returns to his native Massachusetts for his high school reunion. There he sees how life has stood still for those he left behind.

Cast/Characters

There is a fairly congested cast, with seven ‘primary’ cast and characters.

There is the ‘lead’ Willie, played by Timothy Hutton – who becomes the object of next door neighbour; teenage Martha ‘Marty’ played by Natalie Portman affection. They develop a friendship during the course of the film that both wish could be more.

Matt Dillon plays Tommy – who is dating Mira Sorvino’s Sharon – but is also having an affair with his high school sweetheart – the married Darien.

Finally there is Andera, the out of town visitor – (played by Uma Thurman) – who ‘local’ Paul – (played by Michael Rapaport) becomes infatuated with, but possibly to make his ex jealous.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

The overarching theme of the film is ‘moving on’ – as Willie – the primary protagonist is one of the only people from his high school friendship groups that have moved on, or even left the small town of Knights Ridge. The only other character who seems to have, is the secondary character Mo (played by Noah Emmerich) – who is now a married father.

The setting itself almost acts as a tertiary character, as the small town in the middle of winter is snow bound. This is written into the screenplay itself at times and I felt that if this had not been present, then the – may not have been as strong.

There is a strong focus on character and dialogue, and because of this the direction is fairly subtle.

Score/Soundtrack

There is such a fun score and soundtrack, with the film title itself playing over the opening credits is catchy. It is the group sing a long of Sweet Caroline that is my favourite part of the film.

Overall

I remember first watching this movie as a teenager, and feeling so far away from the age of the characters and now re-watching at 40 and being significantly older than these characters is surreal.

The character of Marty was somewhat of a problem, mainly due to the fact that once again Natalie Portman was put in a role that really would not have been appropriate in 2024. Hollywood did seem to put her in roles that were a little inappropriate.

I still quite enjoyed it, and do recommend this film.

3.5/5