Things I Never Told You
((Drama -- U.S.-Spanish -- Color))
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Ann ... Lili Taylor Don Henderson ... Andrew McCarthy Diane ... Debi Mazar Paul ... Alexis Arquette Laurie ... Leslie Mann Steve ... Richard Edson Frank ... Seymour Cassel Things I Never Told You" is a wan comedy-drama that too often offers artifice and attitude instead of humor and heart. Theatrical prospects are dubious. With the right packaging, however, pic might earn some small change as a vid rental item.
Shortly after she recovers from a halfhearted suicide attempt, Ann calls a volunteer-staffed hotline. That's how she connects with Don (Andrew McCarthy), an aimless thirtysomething who works part-time at Hope Line when he isn't selling houses at a development owned by his father (Seymour Cassel).
Don frequently fields calls from such desperate characters as Diane (Debi Mazar), a transsexual TV technician who became a woman to please a lover who subsequently left her, and Steve (Richard Edson), a small-time con man who damaged his mental health by faking depression to earn payments from a pharmaceutical research company.
Ann is the only caller to really stir his curiosity. When he accidentally discovers who she is, he begins a tentative courtship. Without knowing his true identity, she responds. Tentatively.
The title refers to Ann's efforts to communicate with her lover by videotaping long, painfully revealing monologues that she plans to mail to him. Trouble is, the tapes never reach their destination -- they're hoarded by her neighbor, Paul (Alexis Arquette), a delivery service messenger with a serious crush on Ann.
Actually, it's probably a good thing the tapes don't reach their intended viewer, since Ann's monologues sound like self-indulgent acting-class exercises.
Writer-director Isabel Coixet, a Spanish-born filmmaker with many advertising and musicvideo credits, clearly wants to say something profound about ennui, rootlessness and unrequited passion. Unfortunately, much of her dialogue has the faux-poetic sound of something that a starry-eyed sophomore might turn in for a play-writing course. Pic does have several genuinely funny moments, and a few witty lines. ("He's the only man I've ever met who tells me I remind him of Audrey Hepburn. Actually, he's the only man I've ever met who doesn't confuse Audrey Hepburn with Katharine Hepburn.") Time and again, however, the heavy air of pretentiousness stifles the fun.
"Things I Never Told You" has the free-form structure of Alan Rudolph's more beguiling comedy-dramas, and relies just as heavily on random encounters and ironic juxtapositions. But the pic sorely lacks the wistful tone of melancholy romanticism that infused such Rudolph-directed cult favorites as "Choose Me" and "Trouble in Mind."
Taylor and McCarthy struggle gamely to bring some humor to roles that call for a great deal of morose posturing. But the pic's brightest moments are those that showcase Mazar, who takes a potentially freakish caricature and creates a surprisingly affecting character. Other players do what they can with thinly written roles.
"Things I Never Told You," a U.S.-Spanish co-production, was filmed on location in and around St. Helen, Ore., with a crew of Spanish and American production personnel. Tech credits are first-rate, particularly the wintry cinematography of Teresa Medina.
Camera (color), Teresa Medina; editor, Kathryn Himoff; music, Alfonso Vilallonga; production design, Charles Armstrong; costumes, Agnes Bonet; sound (Dolby), Dominick De Stefano; assistant director, William Paul Clark; casting, Heidi Levitt, Monica Mikkelssen. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama), Feb. 20, 1996. (Also in L.A. Independent Film Festival). Running time: 93 min.
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