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Thanks for the memories!

Good concept, poorly executed.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

She's So Lovely (1997): Dir: Nick Cassavetes / Cast: Sean Penn, Robin Wright, John Travolta, Harry Dean Stanton, Debi Mazar: Repulsive bag of trash starring Robin Wright as a revolting little brat who is anything but lovely. After she is raped Sean Penn goes mad, gets drunk and then shoots somebody. They send him away in a nifty white jacket. Released ten years later with the news that Wright remarried and has a daughter. John Travolta plays her husband who feels that his stepdaughter should meet her father. The plot is contaminated because Nick Cassavetes shoots it like a bad sitcom. Penn is completely unsympathetic with an outrage that somehow never comes off convincingly. We are to believe that he is within the right here but since she is now married, his plea is more nonsense. Wright has this weird habit of tripping. She is even less sympathetic than Penn with a final scene that is more shameful than anything. Travolta delivers one-liners while waiting to get screwed over. His scenes are merely sitcom fashion within stagy sets. Harry Dean Stanton plays a friend of Penn who accompanies him and observes the outbursts. Stanton is often joined by Debi Mazar, who sits out the useless climax. It is a pathetic film that should be puked upon by every intoxicated person who resorted to alcohol upon seeing it. Message about alcohol is thwarted by its revolting ending. Score: 0 / 10

Maureen and Eddie seem like a pair of losers, they live without purpose, to most of us, yet what is amazing is they are in love, a love that is not shared, even with their own child. You wonder how this can be? It is a story about two persons who live life on the edge, yet have a binding, perhaps blinding love. They are two of a kind and both know it. Before Eddie goes off to the mental institution, where he spends ten years, Maureen enters a secure marriage with a man who she does not really love her the way Eddie had; it is more a marriage of convenience and Joey, played excellent by John Travolta, is a husband who feels his wife owes him for saving her from a life of debauchery.As hard as it seems imaginable, she never loves him, in fact, she resents him for changing her. Maureen is not a typical woman by any means; she dislikes Middle-Class life and being a housewife, as she is unfit to have a career. Same with Eddie, he may have improved some after ten years in a hospital; however, he is back to his drinking and slumming, which appeals to Maureen.We find this strange love off-beat, yet it does happen in real life. This film is very strange, yet realistic for a small minority of persons who eschew the value of stability and security. Maureen has always loved Eddie more than Joey, and as hard as it is to imagine, she leaves her children, her home, and stable husband for the love she has only found with Eddie.It is really a better film than most think, because it shows a side of life that seems so undesirable. It is as sad as it is fulfilling for the two long parted lovers. It funds itself in an unfamiliar territory, yet this does happen and as much as most feel it is a waste of life, it reveals the nature of individuality.I think Penn went out on a limb making this film, it is much like abstract art, it can only be appreciated by those who see past the social conventions most adhere; they are not ordinary people and may end up broken unhealthy middle-aged alcoholics, but they live for today.

She's So Lovely (1997)**** (out of 4) Eddie (Sean Penn) literally goes insane with his love for his wife Maurine (Robin Wright) and gets put in an asylum for ten years. When he gets out he learns that his now ex-wife has married another guy (John Travolta) but Eddie still plans on getting her back. I watched this film the first day it was released into theaters and I thought it was one of the best films of the year. Today I still considering it one of the most neglected and overlooked gems of the decade and I know I'm in the minority but I see it as a real masterpiece. I think a lot of people are turned off because of the subject matter and because the three lead characters are all so ugly and do some pretty vile things that they have a hard time connecting or feeling anything for them. For me, I think the film perfectly captures that "love" that these types of people can still feel. I think most people want to see love stories about beautiful people who do beautiful things. They don't want to see love between a bunch of losers like Eddie and Maurine. Nick Cassavetes directs his father's screenplay and I think he perfectly nails the situations, the atmosphere and the all around lifestyle of these two deadbeats. The first half of the film takes place when the two are together, living in filth and the entire situation is certainly one that you'd call unhealthy. The rawness is these scenes is just so real that Cassavetes deserves credit for keeping everything together. The second half of the film gets even stranger when Eddie goes to get his woman and the impact this has on her other family is something that I'm sure will outrage many. Penn gives a terrific performance and it's a real shame this here didn't get him any Oscar consideration. The way he plays Eddie early on is something he could do in his sleep but the real amazing part comes during the mental breakdown sequence and how different the character is in the second half. Penn is basically playing three different people here and he does a marvelous job on each. Wright is also terrific in her part of the conflicted wife and Travolta gives one of his best and funniest performances here. Harry Dean Stanton is terrific in his small bit as is James Gandolfini as a scumbag neighbor. Again, most people are going to be turned off by the material and some of the harsh things that happen but to me SHE'S SO LOVELY features Penn at his greatest and its low story is just so raw and powerful that I can't help but love it.

It is clear from his performance here why Sean Penn eventually won an Oscar. Although I didn't like the character, Penn effectively showed many dimensions of the troubled Eddie Quinn. I thoroughly despised Maureen, and I don't know how to evaluate Robin Wright Penn's performance. Jack wasn't much better, though his circumstances contributed to this, and I believe John Travolta did a good job playing him.Other good performances came from Kelsey Mulrooney as Jack's 9-year-old adopted daughter Jeannie, Harry Dean Stanton as Eddie's best friend Shorty, and Justina Machado as Carmen Rodriguez, who sold tickets at the dance club and was a real breath of fresh air in this depressing movie despite having only a few lines. What I really liked was the music. Some of these may just have been background rather than recorded for other purposes, and some of the background music I liked but didn't pay that much attention to. -Big band jazz with the opening credits, though in my opinion the vocal performance was horrendous.-More good jazz on the way to the dance club.-Latin jazz in the dance club, but I didn't care for the vocalist.-Italian-flavored easy listening in Lorenzo's Restaurant.-Late in the movie, more good jazz as Eddie sat in Shorty's car drinking.-Still more good jazz, but in a style totally out of character for the scene, when Eddie got out of Shorty's car for the second time.-Big band jazz--but with bawdy lyrics--in the closing credits. And there were other songs used that I didn't like as much, including one Motown-type tune that I began to associate with a particularly unpleasant moment in the movie as I heard it during commercial breaks, when we were reminded what we were watching.Some people may enjoy a movie like this. Not me.