Main Cast: Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, John Travolta
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Written by the late John Cassavettes in 1987 and filmed by his son Nick a decade later, the comic drama She's So Lovely (originally and more appropriately titled She's De Lovely in honor of the Cole Porter composition central to the movie) stars real-life couple Sean Penn and Robin Wright-Penn as Eddie and Maureen, a young husband and wife whose relationship is strained by Eddie's frequently irrational behavior. When a run-in with a slimy neighbor (James Gandolfini) leaves the pregnant Maureen beaten and bruised, Eddie goes on the warpath, and his violent actions land him in a mental institution. Upon his release a decade later, he discovers Maureen has remarried (to a construction manager portrayed by John Travolta), had two more kids, and moved to the suburbs. Regardless, he resolves to win her back. A kind of reworking of the Cassavetes Sr. masterpiece A Woman Under the Influence, She's So Lovely marked the second film directed by Nick after Unhook the Stars. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Review
Reportedly heavily reworked in post-production, Nick Cassavetes' filming of an unproduced screenplay by his father has a wavering tone that suggests the rumors are true. Even so, the younger Cassavetes nicely captures the dead-end lives in which his father specialized, in no small part because he lets his actors do much of the work. John Travolta, though not bad, looks a little out of place amidst a cast that seems to have been born to play in a film by Cassavetes senior. A worthwhile, if undeniably flawed film, She's So Lovely plays more like the cinematic equivalent of a tribute album more than a film in its own right, but it's a heartfelt tribute, and one mostly well-done, blunted impact and all. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide
Matthew Barry - Casting, Beatrix Aruna Pasztor - Costume Designer, John Nelson - First Assistant Director, Nick Cassavetes - Director, Petra Von Oelffen - Editor, John Travolta - Executive Producer, Bernard Bouix - Executive Producer, Gérard Depardieu - Executive Producer, Sean Penn - Executive Producer, Joseph Vitarelli - Composer (Music Score), David Wasco - Production Designer, Thierry Arbogast - Cinematographer, René Cleitman - Producer, Jim Stueve - Sound/Sound Designer, John Cassavetes - Screenwriter, Fred Weinberg - Second Assistant Director
She's So Lovely is a 1997 film directed by Nick Cassavetes, written by the late John Cassavetes. At the time of its release, it received special attention because, eight years after his death, it was the first (and still only) film to posthumously feature new material from John Cassavetes.
