Since You've Been Gone

• Director: David Schwimmer
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Comedy
• Movie Type: Reunion Films
• Themes: Nothing Goes Right
• Main Cast: Lara Flynn Boyle, Joy Gregory, Teri Hatcher, David Schwimmer, Joey Slotnick, Philip Rayburn Smith
• Release Year: 1999
• Country: US
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• MPAA Rating: R

Plot

A disparate posse of friends reconvenes in a suburb of Chicago for a high-school reunion in this ensemble comedy. Ten years after getting beaten up on graduation day by a classmate (Tom Hodges), Dr. Kevin MacEldowney (Philip Rayburn Smith) dreads his class reunion. On hand to bolster his sense of self-worth are wife Mollie (Joy Gregory) and best friend Zane Levy (Joey Slotnick). Zane has problems of his own: he wrote a hit song but watched another artist take a tarted-up version of it to the top of the charts. As the reunion progresses, he gets to hear it sung by any number of fellow alumni, from Euro-poseur Maria Goldstein (Teri Hatcher) and self-help guru Holly Petuto (Heidi Stillman) to psycho joker Grace Williams (Lara Flynn Boyle) and smug class president Robert S. Levitt (David Schwimmer). As these and other characters reconnect after a decade, they experience a familiar series of liaisons, revelations, and conflicts -- but rarely in a very straightforward manner. Originally filmed for television, Since You've Been Gone was directed by David Schwimmer, whose Friends castmate Lisa Kudrow starred in the similarly conceived Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. Rachel Griffiths, Molly Ringwald, Liev Schreiber, Jennifer Grey, Jerry Springer, and Marisa Tomei all contribute brief comedic cameos. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Review

Though it treads familiar ground plot-wise, this low-key comedy offers a likable cast of talented unknowns and an engaging mixture of high and low comedy. Sitcom star David Schwimmer, branching out into directing, plays a nasty pathos-free variation on his signature Friends role, but shows a steady hand behind the camera. Juggling more than a dozen characters and deftly juxtaposing their misadventures at a high-school reunion, Schwimmer keeps things moving fast enough that the material's essential weightlessness becomes irrelevant. Some of the comedic performances fire on more cylinders than others, notably Lara Flynn Boyle's part as a vicious practical joker and Heidi Stillman as a self-congratulatory, self-help guru. The bawdy set pieces aren't always as fresh or as funny as they'd like to be, but the script usually returns to its strong suit: humor rooted in character. Philip Rayburn Smith and Joy Gregory make appealing romantic protagonists, while Joey Slotnick belies clichés as their not-so-token gay friend. Since You've Been Gone is hardly an important film, but its black humor is far quirkier -- and its unsentimental introspection is far more convincing than the initial premise would seem to promise. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Cast

Lara Flynn Boyle - Grace; Christine Dunford - Debbie; Teri Hatcher - Marie; David Schwimmer - Rob Levitt; Joey Slotnick - Zane Levey; Philip Rayburn Smith - Dr. Kevin MacEldowney; Joy Gregory - Mollie; Heidi Stillman - Holly Petuto

Credit

David Schwimmer - Director, Richard N. Gladstein - Producer

Similar Movies

Something Wild; Grosse Pointe Blank; Romy and Michele's High School Reunion; The Breakfast Club; The Wedding Singer

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