Some Girls (1988)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Cruel of Three

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Patrick Dempsey gives a likable performance at the center of Michael Hoffmann's Some Girls and he almost holds it together on goodwill alone. Otherwise, it's a comedy of discomfort, in which everyone else in the movie acts frustratingly bizarre, and in which circumstances usually make it look as if they're right and Michael's wrong. Then, a weird ending leaves the movie off with a "huh?"

Dempsey plays Michael, who travels to French Canada to spend Christmas with his beautiful girlfriend Gabriella (Jennifer Connelly). She quickly tells him that she's not in love with him anymore. I might have turned around and left at that point, but Michael stays on for more strangeness. Gabriella's two sisters Irenka (Sheila Kelley) and Simone (Ashley Greenfield) flirt with him, their mother (Florinda Bolkan) scowls at him, and their father (Andre Gregory) is a scholar who can only write while naked.

There's a lot of French-drawing-room-type humor, as when a naked Michael accidentally discovers a surprise party, and a lot of jumping from room to room, or climbing from windows (Gabriella's room even has a secret door). Things are exacerbated by the family's ailing Granny (Lila Kedrova), who keeps escaping and must be tracked down in the snowy landscape. I kept hoping for the film to at least offer some kind of Christmas cheer, but I found the back-and-forth humor to be not to my taste.

Kino Lorber's good-looking 2022 Blu-ray release includes a new commentary by Hoffman, moderated by historian/filmmaker Daniel Kremer, a featurette with Hoffmann, optional subtitles, and various trailers.