Mr. Jealousy

The downfall of nearly all comedies is that Silliness is so often used as a substitute for humor. In this film, I never felt embarrassed for any of the characters, who were allowed to seem like genuinely real people in the context of a genuinely humorous development. It was also literate, which was nice given the thread of narrative running through the thing. I felt that simply reading the script would have been a nice rainy-day read, but at the same time, the lines were not literarily pompous or turgid.

Altogether, this was not a great film---but nicely, nothing happened in it to make it a bad one, either. If you're fed up with variations on same-old-same-old, sit back and just let this film flow over you.

For all of you Whit Stillman fans (Metropolitan, Barcelona, and Last Days of Disco) check out this movie as well as Noah's earlier film Kicking and Screaming. The premise of the movie is very good and it lives up to its title. If you hate the kind of movie where everyone spends the whole movie talking to one another then skip this one because there are not any jokes involving people being kicked in their midsection or everyone's favorite bathroom humor. Instead you have an intelligent comedy that will add nothing of value to your life but will hopefully make you laugh as you examine other peoples neurosis. I think that there is chemistry between Stoltz and Sciorra despite what a previous reviewer said. I also think this film is better than Kicking and Screaming.

MR. JEALOUSY doesn't aspire to greatness; just a small, quirky, romantic comedy. To this end it succeeds. Set in Manhattan, Eric Stoltz plays a young thirty-something wannabe writer earning a living as a substitute teacher. Annabella Sciorra plays his girlfriend, and they are falling in love with one another. Eric's problem is that he is pathologically jealous and is being eaten away by thoughts of one of her earlier lovers who is now a successful writer. So obsessed is Eric that he joins the ex-boyfriend's group therapy session under the guise of his best friend. And far from being irate, the friend begins to dig on this, receiving therapy vicariously through Eric.

Of course the whole shebang unravels and...well that's the movie. As far as 'date' movies go, this is better than most and is heartily recommended for the guys when the lady wants this kind of movie brought home.

"Mr. Jealousy" is a somewhat tedious heavily narrated Woody Allen-esque intellectual musing of relationship issues, specifically jealousy, with a NYC Gen-X milieu. A romantic-comedy tale of a tentative Stoltz's affair with a too experienced Sciorra, this emotionally sterile and somewhat heady flick is not likely to evoke more than an occasional chuckle nor milk a single tear nor give anyone the warm and fuzzies. Okay stuff for those into microscopic examinations of relationships though not likely to have broad appeal. (C+)

Aside from a thoroughly misrepresentative title, "Mr. Jealousy" is actually quite entertaining. With good acting, a good story, and the brand of direction one only gets from the writer, the film is a genuinely charming romantic comedy. The humor is subtle and the dialogue poetic, but if you like that kind of thing (think "Royal Tenenbaums" meets "Kissing Jessica Stein," with most emphasis on the Stein) you should rent it. It's esoteric, but if you get it you'll like it.