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2000 Sundance Film Festival: "Things
You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her"
Hollywood Reporter - January 24, 2000
By Kirk Honeycutt
There's a stark simplicity to the dramatic shape of "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her." Here are
five vignettes about women living in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, women who are yearning for and seeking love.
What's daring in the design of each story is that Rodrigo Garcia, a noted cinematographer making his writing and
directing debut, never introduces high drama or tense conflict into these stories to pinpoint troubles in his
characters' lives. Rather he looks at small moments or intimate details to provide clues.
The film, developed at the Sundance Institute's writers and directors labs, fittingly premieres at the Sundance Film
Festival. The Sundance imprint and a terrific ensemble cast should help MGM market this film when it goes out
nationally in late April. But the film, which feels almost like a foreign film, is not likely to move beyond the
rarefied air of art houses.
While developed for the screen, "Things You Can Tell" reminds you of the sensation of browsing through a
collection of tightly written, precisely nuanced short stories. Various elements link the five tales -- characters
in one story turn up in another and one mysterious woman (Elpidia Carrillo) drifts through the periphery of all
five. But the main link here is thematic: lonely women, living lives of quiet desperation, all searching for
intimacy.
Dr. Elaine Keener (Glenn Close), a successful physician, calls in Christine (Calista Flockhart), a tarot card
reader, to learn the truth about the emptiness of her life.
Self-reliant bank manager Rebecca (Holly Hunter) discovers she has become pregnant during a longtime affair with a
married businessman (Gregory Hines). Her casual determination to terminate this pregnancy belies the turmoil beneath
the surface.
Rose (Kathy Baker), a single mom and writer of children's books, develops a fascination for a man who just moved in
across the street, a little person named Albert (Danny Woodburn).
As Christine, the tarot card reader, cares for her terminally ill lover Lilly (Valeria Golino), she recalls for
herself and Lilly memories of their happier days.
Kathy (Amy Brenneman), a police detective, investigates the apparent suicide of a friend. Meanwhile, her more
outgoing sister Carol (Cameron Diaz), who is blind, fantasizes about why the woman may have killed herself.
Garcia is a fine writer, but he is not above relying on such short-cut devices as dreams or tarot card readings. He
more than makes up for this with an unerring instinct for what makes these individuals vulnerable. He lets moments
of epiphany occur unexpectedly while a character is walking down a street or tending to canaries in a bird cage.
The title hints at what Garcia is trying to get at. You can tell things about these people by simply looking and
watching. Like Hitchcock, Garcia understands that movies are voyeuristic. He captures moments few directors would
think to put on film: Elaine bathing her aging, naked mother or Rose being embarrassed when the neighbor catches her
spying on him.
Whatever the fate of this film, Garcia serves notice that a smart, young filmmaker has come on the scene, one we may
be watching for years to come.
THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER
MGM United Artists
Producers: Jon Avnet, Lisa Lindstrom, Marsha Oglesby
Writer-director: Rodrigo Garcia
Executive producers: Elie Samaha, Andrew Stevens
Director of photography: Emmanuel Lubezki
Production designer: Jerry Fleming
Music: Edward Shearmur
Costume designer: George L. Little
Editor: Amy E. Duddleston
Color/stereo
Cast:
Dr. Elaine Keener: Glenn Close
Rebecca: Holly Hunter
Carol: Cameron Diaz
Christine: Calista Flockhart
Kathy: Amy Brenneman
Rose: Kathy Baker
Lilly: Valeria Golino
Robert: Gregory Hines
Running time -- 109 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13
Copyright © 2000 Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.
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