Till There Was You
This is the most boring and artificial film in a long time, a 114-minute example of the Idiot Plot, where just a few well spoken words could solve everything.
A simple story underlies it all: A man and woman who are clearly made for each other are kept apart throughout a whole movie, until they finally meet at the end. I suppose we should feel happy when they eventually reunite, however, with such abrupt conclusion to this flick that we don’t even get to see them together.
Scott Winant directs “Till there Was You,” written by Winnie Holzman which comes across as leftovers from several meals. Through our parents’ love stories, college romances, shocking revelations concerning sexuality and parenthood; one messed up ex sitcom star that gets into trouble all the time for no reason at all; an architect who’s “a perfectionist with low self-esteem”; a ghost writer who falls in love with a colorful old apartment building; not one but two colorful old ladies who stick to their guns; zoning hearings; bad poetry; endless falling rose petals; chain-smoking; gays in the closet; traffic accidents-however after it’s over we are left frustrated by the fact that we have wasted 114 minutes which can never be regained.
There are also some truly disastrous casting decisions. It helps me if I can tell them apart because I really like being able to identify characters in movies as opposed to anything else. I could never remember which of these guys was different (an architect), another guy and a gay college professor) since they looked alike.
They were like wannabe Pierce Brosnans of some sort. It becomes even harder to follow when you realize that there are several doppelgangers lurking around due to the fact that many of these people should know each other but they don’t while others shouldn’t know each other but they do. When casting, this person supposed that the lead’s familiarity to a TV sitcom would make it easier for the audience to take note of him rather than pay attention to his looks. Sorry.
The situation involves: A former actress (Sarah Jessica Parker) who owns a fantastic old apartment complex, which is set to be demolished in favor of a condominium tower. The architect (Dylan McDermott) who plans to design them starts dating her. His idol is an elderly lady architect (Nina Foch), who seems to have been Frank Lloyd Wright of her time. She designed that colorful old apartment building, but he doesn’t know about it.
(How likely is it that an architect would be unfamiliar with one of his famous mentor’s key buildings in the city where he lives? Not very.) Meanwhile, the ex-sitcom star hires a ghost writer (Jeanne Tripplehorn) to write her autobiography. The ghost writer and the architect met at summer camp when they were young children. They are fated to meet again in life but keep coming so close yet so far from each other by inches or minutes apart; some misses took place at one point in a restaurant designed by the architect himself.
This restaurant seems to be built in such a way that it could attract personal injury lawyers. As she first enters it, Tripplehorn is unable to open the door and when she does; it suddenly flings open and she totters through the entire room, into something. Then later on , as if that weren’t enough what with banging herself on a low flying sculpture, tripping over the waiter, catching her heel in the floor, falling over the chair and so forth she beans herself on a centerpiece as well.
Did she study for a “Three Stooges” film? All of this movie’s sincere scenes are beside the point. They involve major characters talking not among themselves but with minor ones instead. There is also heartfelt conversation between architect and his mentor.
Heartfelt conversation is likewise featured between ghost writer (Gwen Verdon) living in colorful old building which writer stumbled upon after coincidental car accident while trying to find her way back home after fleeing from her father saw him driving in the same direction they were heading. There is also heartfelt conversation between writer and her aged father who confesses to have authored those mythical stories about their past together at home.
There is deeper intimacy expressed between these two speakers than any other character’s levels of encounters throughout this script. The second set of which was a touching scene involving an elder gentleman who had mentored Tripplehorn’s mother earlier before passing away. There is another scene where TrippleHorn supplies Gina Davis with some of her own clothes; Helps Jeanne try out one of them by putting it on herself then taking it off again afterward all while simultaneously assuring Jeanne that this was just because she wanted something else besides wearing only dresses anymore!
Another group includes what used to be called “women’s libbers” in 60 years ago or so Constitutional Convention ’76 bus trip participants: Harry Truman, Bess Truman, Lillian Hellman, Helen Keller. They are in that order of names listed below those three players’ signatures on the inside leaf of paperback edition which was printed 5 years ago; Alongside each name is its corresponding paragraph number (i.e., “T-2,” for Truman’s speech or “H-4” indicating his point).
A lot of things are just plain incorrect. Being a literature student, Tripplehorn is expected to be a reasonably good writer. However, so it turns out when we hear one read (after it accidentally sticks to the bottom of an architectural model thrown out of a window but never mind) that it is written in rhyming couplets like you might find under needlepoint designs.
And all of them smoke awfully and want to quit, and one of the places they almost meet in this movie among other ones happens during an “N.A.” meeting called ‘Nicotine Anonymous.’ At least know what you’re saying before you drop “N.A.” into your conversation because most people think this acronym stands for something else.
So how about those flowers? Or whatever these are rose petals or lilac petals? If only there were trees above this courtyard in the old building with different colours! Yet as we watch every scene they keep falling for days & weeks on end: so many that I stayed through final credits hoping against hope some thing would mention Petal Dropper.
Everything culminates towards the end. The landmarks are saved, hearts are mended, long-deferred love is realized, coincidences explained, pasts healed, futures assured and movies finished. The last part was my favourite part.
Watch Till There Was You For Free On Solarmovies.