She's So Lovely

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She's So Lovely
She's So Lovely.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
Written by John Cassavetes
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Thierry Arbogast
Edited byPetra von Oelffen
Music byJoseph Vitarelli
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release date
  • August 29, 1997 (1997-08-29)
Running time
100 minutes
CountriesUnited States
France
LanguageEnglish
Budget$18 million
Box office$7,281,450

She's So Lovely is a 1997 American romantic drama film written by John Cassavetes and directed by his son Nick Cassavetes. At the time of its release, it received special attention because, eight years after his death, it was the first (and still only) film to feature previously unreleased material from John Cassavetes. The film stars Sean Penn and John Travolta as two men who bid for the affection of Maureen Murphy Quinn (Robin Wright). Harry Dean Stanton co-stars as a friend of Penn's character, and James Gandolfini plays the abusive neighbor.

Contents

Plot

Eddie Quinn's unruly wife Maureen drinks and smokes to excess, even though she is pregnant. Eddie has troubles of his own, disappearing for days at a time. When she is physically and sexually assaulted by Kiefer, a neighbor, it is more than Eddie can handle. He shoots someone and lands in a psychiatric hospital.

Ten years go by. Eddie finally returns, only to find Maureen is now a clean, sober, solid citizen, married to a new man, Joey, and a mother of three children, one of whom is Eddie's own daughter. Eddie's return complicates and endangers all of their lives.

Cast

Production

The film was co-produced by a French company, with funding from actor Gérard Depardieu, and René Cleitman [1] for Hachette. Depardieu, a friend of the Cassavetes family, had already produced Nick Cassavetes' first film, Unhook the Stars . At Depardieu's request, John Travolta accepted to act in the film for $1 million, much lower than his usual salary. [2]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 66% of 41 critics' reviews are positive. [3] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [4]

Movie critic Roger Ebert rated the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times : "What [Nick Cassavetes] understands is that if you want to see true weirdness, you don't look along skid row, where the motives are pretty easy to understand, but out in suburbia, where those green lawns can surround human time bombs." [5] Writing in Time Out New York , Andrew Johnston remarked, "Watching the films of John Cassavetes now, one is struck by how complex and human his characters are, compared with those in even the most sophisticated of today's independent films. This effect is even more pronounced in She's So Lovely, an unproduced Cassavetes script given the '90s treatment and filled with stars by the late director's son. The final product features some of the year's best performances...." [6]

Awards

Sean Penn won the award for Best Actor at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. [7] Robin Wright received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role at the 4th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

References

  1. ↑ "She's so Lovely". AlloCiné (in French). Retrieved 2025-06-21.
  2. ↑ Lalanne, Jean-Marc (2009-03-01). "Gérard Depardieu : le grand entretien". Les Inrockuptibles (in French). Retrieved 2025-06-21.
  3. ↑ "She's So Lovely". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved June 11, 2025. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  4. ↑ "She's So Lovely Reviews". www.metacritic.com. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
  5. ↑ Ebert, Roger (August 29, 1997). "She's So Lovely movie review & film summary (1997)". Chicago Sun-Times .
  6. ↑ Johnston, Andrew (September 1997). "She's So Lovely". Time Out New York: 77.
  7. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: She's So Lovely". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
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