Beautiful Girls (1996)

Director:

Ted Demme

Writer (WGA):

Scott Rosenberg (written by)

Release Date:

9 February 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

good times never seemed so good

Plot:

A piano player at a crossroads in his life returns home to his friends and their own problems with life and love.

Plot Keywords:

Girlfriend | Reunion | Town | Pianist | Winter

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Matt Dillon	...	Tommy 'Birdman' Rowland
Noah Emmerich	...	Michael 'Mo' Morris
Annabeth Gish	...	Tracy Stover
Lauren Holly	...	Darian Smalls
Timothy Hutton	...	Willie Conway
Rosie O'Donnell	...	Gina Barrisano
Max Perlich	...	Kev
Martha Plimpton	...	Jan
Natalie Portman	...	Marty
Michael Rapaport	...	Paul Kirkwood
Mira Sorvino	...	Sharon Cassidy
Uma Thurman	...	Andera
Pruitt Taylor Vince	...	Stanley 'Stinky' Womack
Anne Bobby	...	Sarah Morris
Richard Bright	...	Dick Conway

Also Known As:

Красивые девушки (Russia) [ru]
Beautiful Girls (Spain) [es]
Brincando de Seduzir (Brazil) [pt]
Femmes de rêve (Canada: French title) [fr]
Fete frumoase (Romania) [ro]
Harika kizlar (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Mulheres Giras (Portugal) [pt]
Omorfa koritsia (Greece) [el]
Unelmien tytöt (Finland) [fi]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong language and nude pin-ups.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Canada:A (Ontario) | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #34304) | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Bryant-Lake Bowl - 810 W. Lake Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Company:

Miramax Films

Trivia:

Paul's monologue to Will, "A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you've been drinking Jack and Coke all morning. She can make you feel high full of the single greatest commodity known to man - promise. Promise of a better day. Promise of a greater hope. Promise of a new tomorrow. This particular aura can be found in the gait of a beautiful girl. In her smile, in her soul, the way she makes every rotten little thing about life seem like it's going to be okay." is in the intro to the demo version of a Taking Back Sunday song called, "Great Romances of the Twentieth Century".

Goofs:

Continuity: Paul's windshield wipers while plowing Jan's driveway the first time.

Quotes:

Andera: Are you drunk?
Willie Conway: I'm not sure. But the two of you look beautiful tonight.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Dialogue: An Interview with Screenwriter Scott Rosenberg (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

Honey White

Much more than I expected. Thoroughly moving.

(Maybe you should read this after watching the movie. I don't know if reading it before will spoil it for you--I doubt it, in fact, but you never know.)

Being the typical unmarried man, I rented "Beautiful Girls" because of its attractive title. I had no idea it could be so moving or endearing. I may be just getting soft, but it was one of the few films I have thought about for more than 72 hours after I saw it.

Aside from all the sexual content, swearing, etc., the dialogue between Marty (the now beautiful Natalie Portman) and Willie (my favorite actor, Timothy Hutton) is nothing short of astounding. Willie is enchanted and attracted to this little 13-year old girl next door. As they exchange more and more conversation, he realizes her great potential and even dreams about how he might just be able to wait ten years and maybe marry her.

The scene in which Willie discusses his feelings with Mo, his married friend was the turning point of the story. Willie realizes that, even if she had a love-at-first-sight crush on him, she would drift away as she matures; she would find someone closer to her own age, and Willie would become just some silly old man she met when she was young and had a ridiculous, immature attraction to. He realizes that by just being her friend, he will be able to keep her in a much more real way than if he tries to wait for her to be his lover.

But the one scene I will remember forever, the most perfect scene in the entire movie, in which the dialogue seemed neither forced nor over-elongated, was the scene in the ice-skating rink with Marty and Willie. Marty tells Willie all the things he would have liked to hear before his talk with Mo. She would marry him after they waited five years, etc. The association Willie makes with Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robins is so beautiful it almost made me cry. (Not really, but you get the point). He gives her a good taste of reality, and she seems mature enough to understand.

In a later scene, Willie tells Marty that he would like to continue being a friend, even a mentor to her, and he has total confidence that whatever she does will be amazing.

There are about three other stories intertwined into the movie, but the Portman-Hutton line stands out as the superior.

Overall, a wonderful movie to which they should have given a title that would attract people with the ability to be moved.

P.S. The funniest part of the entire movie is the confused look Willie and Paul exchange after Mo gives unusually-phrased threats to Steven, who beat up their friend. You have to have seen the movie to understand