1988’s Some Girls, directed by Michael Hoffman, is the story of American college student Michael (Patrick Dempsey) who journeys to Quebec at Christmas to spend time with his girlfriend Gabriella (Connelly) and her wacky, rich family. However, not long after arriving, she dumps him, but her two free-spirited sisters waste no time in showing their affections for him.
I’ve been looking forward to this one and had seen it recommended in a few lists of great ‘mature’ Christmas films but, sadly, I find it all rather dull and a bit rubbish. There’s clearly a reason I’d never heard of it before – it’s not all that memorable or interesting. Also, despite being set in wonderfully snowy Quebec, it’s really not a very Christmassy film at all. I’ve been to the French-speaking Canadian province myself in December, and can attest that it's possibly the most festive, Christmassy place I’ve ever been, but the film doesn’t really capture that feeling at all, presenting the place as more of a dark, drab place.
You’ve got to feel for poor Michael – the film opens with him left standing in the freezing bus station, seemingly stood up. When Gabby eventually turns up, she doesn’t really apologise and casually explains that her family sometimes just “don’t answer the phone”. Alarm bells are ringing for the audience already, but Michael’s so darn pleased just to be invited he lets it slide. He’s oblivious to the fact she’s not that into him anymore and, right before festivities kick off, she tells him she doesn’t love him and it’s over. What an ice queen! Why invite him in the first place? “I had to be sure,” she nonchalantly tells him. Ouch.
She’ll spend the rest of the film blowing hot and cold, leading him on, while her equally beguiling and odd sisters Simone (Ashley Greenfield) and Irenka (Sheila Kelley) circle like vultures, flirting and also toying with him. It sounds like a recipe for a rather sexy, dare I say it, erotic tale, except it’s all rather flat and baffling.
We’re introduced to Gabby’s ‘kooky’ family, including her dad who likes to paint in the nude and her stoic mother, while there’s a bit of drama with her grandmother who’s in a mental home and mistakes Michael for her long dead husband. He’s like a deer in the headlights throughout the film, an innocent, if naïve chap stuck in a house full of eccentrics, but behaving like a hormonal teenage horn-dog. I’m reminded of films like American Pie and The Sure Thing, films about young guys who’re completely blind to what’s going on, because they can’t stop thinking with their peckers. Problem is, this one doesn’t have any of the risqué gross-out humour that makes those films so endearing.
There is the odd laugh here and there, like the moment where, thinking they’re alone at last, Michael chases Gabby through the house in their undies, thinking that, surely, this time, he’s getting some. But – oops! – it’s the old ‘surprise birthday party’ gag, and he runs right into the assembled throng in his birthday suit. Wa wa waaaaaaah.
It's an odd film, but un-memorably so. It’s hard to warm to any of these characters as it’s the sort of movie where nobody really acts or reacts to each other’s strange behaviour like a real person would. I’d have expected that Michael would be furious at having come all this way just to be unceremoniously dumped but Gabby’s so cute he just sort of hangs around anyway. It's a frustrating and unremarkable little film, but it is set at Christmas and is super-snowy, so I’m happy to say it still counts, alright?
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