Mr. Jealousy

Gene Siskel remarked of this film that the title character, Lester Grimm (Eric Stoltz), really ought to have been called Mr. Hesitant; I'd plump for Mr. Mildly Flustered, myself. Lester is alleged by the film's omniscient narrator (writer/director Noah Baumbach, whose previous film, Kicking and Screaming, was far superior) to be pathologically jealous, but it's an assertion unsupported by anything we see him do onscreen; for Lester, jealousy is the green-eyed sloth that doth sit around in the noonday sun blinking its eyes lazily and wondering where it might find a little meat to mock. Yes, he's suspicious enough to impulsively join the therapy group to which his girlfriend Ramona's (Annabella Sciorra) former lover Dashiell Frank (Chris Eigeman) belongs, in an attempt to dig up some dirt vis-á-vis her past, but his problem isn't so much jealousy as it is garden-variety insecurity; like Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy, Mr. Jealousy turns out to be a movie about a guy who can't deal with his girlfriend's sexual history. Which would be fine, really, if only he weren't not dealing with it so incredibly calmly. The actors are fine, and the movie has its moments, but a little oomph would've been nice. Optional. (M. D'Angelo)