Mostly overlooked by the public at the time of its release, Writer/Director Don Roos came up with this little gem filled with some of the cleverest dialogue and dark humour from a major American film in years. Ricci was born to play Dedee and revels in getting to say stuff like "my mother was the kind of woman who said her daughter was her best friend - great, which means not only do I have a shitty mother but my best friend's a loser bitch". However Ricci is like a narrator, this is a real ensemble cast with solid performances all round.
Donovan gives the beleagured teacher just trying to have an average life the right amount of depth it needs, Sergei is also equally impressive adding weight to what could easily have been just a 'dumb hunk' role in others hands, but its Lisa Kudrow who steals the show as the uptight Lucia who really has a lot to learn about love and passion. Kudrow's film career has always been stuck in supporting parts, but this is easily her best big screen performance yet and should've gotten her an Oscar nomination.
The film mixes emotional drama with off-the-wall comedy quite well - some of it biting satire while at other times its just hilariously irreverent - take a scene where an all-too perky female video clerk is being interviewed: "This is America, and we're Christians here -- aside from a few Jewish people who were just born that way - and I can tell you one thing: Jesus Christ and his apostles were certainly not into "man-on-man action," which is how they describe it on their porno videos, which, I am proud to say, Blockbuster does not carry. Um, I work there and it's very family". As you can see its a film not to everyone's taste but if you like your comedies offensive yet intelligent then this is a must see.
