Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (DVD) (*)

~~$20.99~~ $14.97

Screened, competed or awarded at:
Cannes Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )

Product Origin/Format:
Netherlands ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
105 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1999 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Rodrigo García

Written By:
Rodrigo García

Actors:
Glenn Close ..... Dr. Elaine Keener (segments 'This is Dr. Keener' and 'Fantasies about Rebecca')
Cameron Diaz ..... Carol Faber (segment 'Love Waits For Kathy')
Calista Flockhart ..... Christine Taylor (segments 'Goodnight Lilly, Goodnight Christine' and 'This is D
Kathy Baker ..... Rose (segments 'Someone For Rose' and 'Fantasies about Rebecca')
Amy Brenneman ..... Detective Kathy Faber (segment 'Love Waits For Kathy')
Valeria Golino ..... Lilly (segment 'Goodnight Lilly, Goodnight Christine')
Holly Hunter ..... Rebecca Waynon (segment 'Fantasies About Rebecca')
Matt Craven ..... Walter (segments 'Fantasies About Rebecca' and 'Love Waits For Kathy')
Gregory Hines ..... Robert (segment 'Fantasies About Rebecca')
Miguel Sandoval ..... Sam (segment 'Love Waits For Kathy'
Noah Fleiss ..... Jay (segment 'Someone For Rose')
Danny Woodburn ..... Albert (segments 'Someone For Rose' and 'Love Waits For Kathy')
Penelope Allen ..... Nancy (segment 'Fantasies About Rebecca"
Roma Maffia ..... Debbie (segments 'Fantasies About Rebecca' and 'Love Waits For Kathy')
Mika Boorem ..... June (segments 'Love Waits For Kathy' and 'Goodnight Lilly, Goodnight Christine'

Synopsis:

An anthology of five loosely connected stories dealing with a variety of very different women in dealing with their own life problems. The first story 'This is Dr. Keener' features Glenn Close as a doctor looking after her invalid mother who comes to realize that her own life is passing her by. The second story 'Fantasies About Rebecca' features Holly Hunter as a wealthy bank manager who doesn't realize that her own life is a sham in dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, a workaholic boyfriend, and an observant street woman who knows more about Rebecca than she herself does. The third, 'Someone For Rose' features Kathy Baker as a single mother who debates with herself over starting a romance with a dwarf who moves into the house across her street. The fourth, 'Goodnight Lilly, Goodnight Christine' features Calista Flockhart as Christine, a tarot reader who struggles with increasing grief and depression while taking care of her lesbian lover Lilly who's dying from cancer. The fifth, 'Love Waits for Kathy' features Amy Brenneman as a police detective who examines her loneliness after her blind sister Carol begins dating while Kathy is on a case of investigating the suicide of an old school friend who was just as lonely as she.

Although Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her does bear some similarities to Short Cuts and Magnolia in its setting (Southern California) and mood (modern malaise), and its multiple story format, its focus is exclusively on female characters, and it's possible to view each story on its own. The film begins with a prologue: Police detectives are investigating the apparent suicide of a Hispanic woman (Elpidia Carillo). "This Is Dr. Keener" deals with Dr. Elaine Keener (Glenn Close), a single professional woman attempting to care for her aging and infirm mother and deal with her own loneliness. She invites Christine (Calista Flockhart), a tarot card reader, into her home to make some sense of her life. "Fantasies About Rebecca" profiles a successful bank manager (Holly Hunter) involved with a married man (Gregory Hines). When she learns that she is pregnant, he coldly advises her to take care of the "problem." Before she visits Dr. Keener to have an abortion, she impulsively has a fling with a colleague (Matt Craven). She is also confronted by a female street person in the bank's parking lot. "Someone for Rose" is about a single mother (Kathy Baker), a writer of children's books. She is attracted to a new neighbor, a dwarf (Danny Woodburn), and he catches her spying on him in his house. She's also amazed to find that her son is more sexually active than she knew -- and more than she is herself. "Good Night Lilly, Good Night Christine" details the relationship between the tarot card reader Christine and her lover, Lilly (Valeria Golino), who is critically ill with an unnamed disease. The final story, "Love Waits for Kathy," concerns two sisters, Carol (Cameron Diaz), a lovely blind woman with an active social life, and her police detective sibling, Kathy (Amy Brenneman), one of the detectives who appeared in the prologue. Kathy is attracted to the medical examiner in the suicide case, and her story ends with him taking her out on a date. In an epilogue, Dr. Keener drops in to a bar, where she meets a male character from one of the earlier stories. Debuting director Rodrigo Garcia, a noted cinematographer, is the son of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Things You Can Tell made its debut on cable television, although it was originally intended to be a theatrical release.

A study of the physical and emotional intricacies affecting the everyday lives of a very diverse group of women, and the strategies they adopt in coping with events - large and small, overt and hidden - which shape the way they live.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 05 February, 2013.