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Review: Things You Can Tell Just By Looking
At Her
By Rebecca Yeldham - January 23, 2000
U.S.A. 1999, 110 min., Color
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Producer: Jon Avnet, Lisa Lindstrom, Marsha Oglesby
Executive Producer: Elie Samaha, Andrew Stevens
Screenwriter: Rodrigo Garcia
Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki
Editor: Amy E. Duddleston
Production Designer: Jerry Fleming
Music: Edward Shearmur
Principal Cast: Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz, Calista Flockhart, Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Holly Hunter
With a tremendous eye and ear for the caverns of human vulnerability, first-time feature director Rodrigo Garcia has
transformed his exquisite screenplay into a drama of acute loveliness and sensitivity. Boasting one of the most
extraordinary ensemble casts ever assembled for an independent movie, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her is
a tender, intelligent evocation of the intimate moments that go unperceived, the secret lives that dwell
"behind every door, behind every face." Comprised of five interwoven vignettes, the film binds the
lifelines of several seemingly disconnected San Fernando Valley residents. Detective Kathy Farber (Amy Brenneman)
arrives at a crime scene to discover the body of Carmen, an old acquaintance (Elpidia Carillo). In the days
preceding Carmen's death, we see her skirt unnoticed the periphery of our protagonists' lives: Dr. Elaine Keener
(Glenn Close), who tends to her infirm mother and waits anxiously for a male colleague to call; self-reliant Rebecca
Weyman (Holly Hunter), who, on discovering she is pregnant, confronts a difficult, desolate choice; single mother
Rose (Kathy Baker), who develops a fanciful, comedic obsession with her new neighbor; Christine (Calista Flockhart),
who wrestles with the imminent death of her ailing lover; and investigator Kathy's acerbic, blind sister, Carol
(Cameron Diaz), who speculates on what might have driven Carmen to suicide.
Gently swathed with humor and pathos, Things You Can Tell is a film of uncommon delicacy and resonance. In his
contemplation of solitude and the fragile cloth of interconnectedness, Garcia has created a passionate foray into
the depths of human longing and desire.
Copyright © 2000 Sundance Film Festival. All rights reserved.
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