Lola Versus is
the follow-up to the film Breaking Upwards from writer/director
team Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones. Set in New York City, Lola (Greta Gerwig),
plays the eponymous character, who discovers on her 29th birthday not only does she get engaged
to get married, but that her life will be rapidly be pulled in every direction.
Three weeks before her wedding her fiancé Luke (Joel Kinnaman, (Safe House”
& The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) calls off the ceremony, thus leaving
her in a state of mourning and disaster.
Lola Versus illustrates one
year in the life of a PhD student in literature named Lola (Greta Gerwig, No
Strings Attached), beginning with her twenty-ninth birthday. In the beginning
of the film, the viewer will encounter this voice-over narration and a dream sequence
in which personal belongings such as shoes, handbags, and vibrators wash up by
the hundreds on a beach. This scene is a precursor to what is yet to happen in Lola’s
life. Everything that seems to make up her personality is washed up to the
shore in complete disarray. In essence, her life is like a puzzle that has
fallen apart and now she must pick up all the pieces and put them back
together. Fast forward, we then move into present-day on Lola’s birthday and
the eventual break-off of the wedding.
Now a heartbroken and
hopelessly confused Lola must move back to her old apartment, which, in a painful
twist of fate, was being sublet by a young woman who recently just got engaged
and will now be moving in with her fiancé. Lola must now turn to her best friends
Alice (Zoe Lister-Jones) a fringe theater actress and sometimes fling Henry (Hamish
Linklater, Battleship) lead singer for an indie rock band for advice and moral
support.
The character of Lola can be described as a
29-year old New Yorker, who has some shallow and irritating tendencies, in
addition to being promiscuous and completely self-absorbed. To make matters
worse, she's also a heavy social drinker mixed with being a weed head. When
watching the film, it will be obvious to see how everything is centered on Lola,
as a result of this selfishness it causes a rift in her familial and friend
relationships. Take note, it becomes very difficult to feel sorry for someone
like Lola who consistently sobs because she cannot find love, yet she has what
some may say a picture-perfect face and body, a full support group, however she
can’t help but sleep with every guy within her New York borough. Without a
doubt, every person has their share of troubles and tears, however it’s what
the person does to fix these issues so that they do not find themselves
repeating the same problems over again.
In “Lola Versus”, we get to
see veteran actor Bill Pullman who plays Lola’s nurturing father Lenny (whose last significant work was Rio Sex Comedy and Peacock) and Academy
Award-nominated (An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of
Endearment) actress, Debra Winger who plays her somewhat overbearing
mother Robin; both of whom seem to be trapped in the 70’s both in their fashion-sense
and mentally. Essentially Lola’s parents are a censoriously high father and
nagging mother, respectively who really do want the best for their daughter.
As a whole, it's not that Lola Versus is unnatural
film, it’s more of another recycled film that looks at the whims of breaking
up. I will say that it does add a bit of humor with all the name-dropping
entities like Facebook, match.com, and Yelp! (I wonder if they got any
commission for that). At moments though it did seem a bit much like the film
was trying to add to much sex appeal with the raunchy jokes; and nonetheless
trying real hard to be socially cool. Even with the witty lines and creative
encounters, it does not bring anything authentic to the screen. Breaking up is
a universal experience, but how many more unique and different ways can one
person show about this action, and it still be entertaining.
Overall, I must say appreciated the way in
which the filmmakers represented New York City. The film could have been easily
flooded with cheesy photogenic shots of landmarks and skylines that we're all
very familiar with; instead they opted for smaller, more intimate locations in
less recognizable parts of the city. The setting and locations of the film
give it some depth. Lola Versus is a charming film that if nothing else you
will get a good laugh, but don’t expect anything new and original that you have
not already seen in a “break-up” type film. If nothing else, there is a basic
message that does ring loud and clear in the film, “before you can be happy
with someone else, you have to be happy and at peace with yourself.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10 stars
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