She's So Lovely is one of the many great flicks to come out in 1997. The movie received lukewarm reviews with the acting being praised and the plot being criticized as wasted potential. The iconic John Cassavetes was about halfway done the script before he died, leaving his son Nick to finish and direct. Nick's take-over could have been better and the ending could have been so much better by anybody else.

The first half of the movie is about Eddie and Maureen Quinn (Penn, Wright) who live in the ghetto part of town. Maureen is pregnant but still smokes and drinks. Both her and Eddie are stupid trashy people, which is kinda funny to see. Despite living in the slums, they both try their hardest to make and satisfy their love lives. When Eddie goes missing for 3 days and Maureen is raped by their neighbour (Gandolfini) Eddie suspects Maureen is lying about falling and he goes on an insane rampage to destroy him. The backstory that's given on their lives is good and just enough time for the movie to really take off. After nearly killing people on his way, he is taken to a mental institution where he remains for the next ten years. In that time Maureen divorced Eddie, married Joey Germoni (Travolta), had two more daughters and moved to a big house in a nice neighbourhood. When Eddie gets released, Maureen must choose between Eddie who loves her to the extreme and is overcoming mental problems and Joey who also loves her and their daughters and nice home.

Sean Penn gives his most underrated performance and was cheated out of a potential win. He did better in this than most of the Oscar nods that year. But given his screen time and position in the film, it is kind of hard to see if he is really the main character. Robin Wright is arguably the protagonist. Either way, Penn's performance is nothing short of spectacular. Anybody with a vast knowledge of acting can vouch for this. Penn's transition from psychotic lowlife to a reformed hermit is great in the eyes of all, but it is the way he does it that goes unrecognized. A lot of the great acting performances feature people with tons of energy just belting out screams and cries. Yeah this is great to see--don't get me wrong--but it is even harder to try to hold it in. Crying and screaming often feels good, but trying to contain it is much harder and is often painful which makes it even that much harder. Sean Penn does exactly this in several scenes. I was blown away at his restraint. Robin Wright also gives restraint, but less often as Penn. Travolta may not have restraint, but he is the energy factor that carried the rest of the movie when Penn gets better.

She's So Lovely doesn't quite seem to find its place in what kind of movie it wants to be. It seems like it tries to be a drama, romance, romantic-comedy, and dark comedy all at once. If John Cassavetes finished the script then gone back over and edited it himself, he would have been able to figure out where he went wrong and what could have been strengthened. The story is great and original, just what genre is it? The movie is about two totally opposite men trying viewing for the same woman; with a story like that and acting this good, it can affect anybody that sees it. Aside from the style of the movie being unclear, the ending is a complete fail that can ruin people's experience. I bet that most people that did not like this movie was overwhelmed by how bad the ending is. A great story with a fuzzy style poorly executed. We all know that Maureen will end up with Eddie again once he gets released, but after seeing her family we change our minds. When Maureen winds up with Eddie at the end, Cassavetes tries to say that love is eternal and true love can conquer all (or something like that). There are two reasons why this doesn't work. First, we don't get a good look at Maureen contemplating who she she wants. More of this would have strengthened the story. But she is so stupid for leaving her three daughters for an unstable man she hasn't seen in ten years! That just shows that she loves her first spouse more than her own children. I've seen this movie a few times and the ending always angers me. All parents that I know would die for their children. If she didn't have kids, this would not be that big a deal. She should have either stayed with Joey and her daughters and talked it over with Eddie, or have a scene after she leaves with the kids at her's and Eddie's apartment.

I do recommend this. Just be prepared for the second half to plummet.

2.5/4

As a John Cassavetes fan this movie then called She's DeLovely has always fascinated as it was the last thing he was working on before he passed.Unfortunately the oversized ego of Sean Penn derailed the project and John passed away before he could get the project going.However his son Nick managed to get the project made and even managed to get Penn back on the production.However Nick proved what I have always suspected.That he isn't his father and didn't understand his father and is nowhere in his league which is why he re-wrote over half of it.That combined with the name change and you get She's So Lovely.A John Cassavetes film that is no longer a John Cassavetes film but is trying to be a John Cassavaetes film and failing.As I said Nick is not his father which is why the film feels butchered.You can feel bits of John in the movie but barely.But the biggest scam is that Nick put his father's name on the writing credits no doubt basking in the publicity of the son finishing his father's final project instead of having the courage to put his on name on there along side his father's with the credit based on an original script by John Cassavetes.As far as I am concerned this is not a John Cassavetes film.I would love to get a hold of the original script for this just to see what John really wrote but I doubt that will happen.