Family Affair

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Carli</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><div> Helen Lesnick                                     Erica Schaffer</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><div> Michele Greene</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>30-second bottom line:</B> "A Family Affair" is an uplifting romantic comedy about a witty, romantically challenged lesbian. The hard boiled, cynical Rachel Rosen leaves New York after her turbulent on and off again relationship with the manipulative Reggie ends. Rachel struggles to find her place in her new city, and she argues with her well-intentioned mom who wants to see her married off immediately.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B> Rachel Rosen has been hurt by love many times and as a result, she has developed a hard surface. She uses her dark humor and cynical banter as defense mechanisms to protect her from further pain. After her move to New York, all of her friends take pity on her, and try to fix her up. She ends up going on many dates with neurotic losers.</div> <bR> <div> Finally, her mom fixes her up with the sunny, extroverted, and optimistic Christine who is a quintessential California girl just as Rachel is a quintessential New Yorker. In many ways, Christine is her opposite. Christine's warmth and sunny optimism are perfect antidotes to Rachel's negative fatalism.</div> <bR> <div> Christine and Rachel get serious, and they decide to publicly declare their love in a wedding ceremony.  But trouble rears its ugly head when Rachel's manipulative ex-lover, Reggie comes to New York to win Rachel back.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Tell me more about it:</B> Some of the best moments occur when Rachel breaks the fourth wall, and talks directly to the audience. This device was used in many Woody Allen films, most notably in the famous theater scene in "Annie Hall" that features Marshall McLuhan. This device serves to humorously draw attention to the artitificialty of it all.</div> <bR> <div> The film was shot on only $390,000 dollars but it is much sharper and cleverer than recent big budget romantic flicks such as "<B>Maid in Manhattan</B>" and "<B>Down with Love."</B>  </div> <bR> <div> "A Family Affair" pokes some good-natured fun at straight parents who try a little too hard to appease their gay kids. Rachel's otherwise conservative mom is a politically correct leader of P-Flag (Parents of Lesbians and Gays), a parental support group for lesbians and gays. She also leads gay marches and uses the work "non-gay" because "straight" is too marginalizing</div> <bR> <div>  " A Family Affair" is a bit calculated, but overall it succeeds. It wants to be a lesbian version of "<B>My Big Fat Greek Wedding,"</B> but in some ways it surpasses that movie because of its insights into lesbian and Jewish subcultures. In contrast, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" taught us very little about Greek Americans.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="621" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> Not Rated- for mature audiences</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> Vittorio J. Carli © 2003</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> <A HREF="mailto:vcarli12763@hotmail.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:vcarli12763@hotmail.com"><U><U>Vcarli12763@hotmail.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>