Oh Lucy!

"Lucy" is the American name adopted by Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima), a middle-aged office worker in Tokyo mired in a dispiriting job, when she agrees to take over English lessons from her free-spirited niece Mika (Shioli Kutsuna). Lucy/Setsuko falls for her handsome teacher John (Josh Hartnett), who conducts unconventional lessons out of a tawdry room in a seedy love hotel. When John runs off with Mika to California, Setsuko follows, accompanied by her estranged, sharp-tongued sister, where she discovers that John is actually a deadbeat dad on the verge of being evicted from his cheap apartment. The film opens with a subway suicide witnessed firsthand by Setsuko, who is so miserable she barely flinches, a scene that sets the tone for this film about one woman whose impossible crush on a younger man inspires her to impulsively leave her oppressive life to reach out for a fantasy that can never be. Making her feature debut, filmmaker Atsuko Hirayanagi has her repressed and lonely heroine open up to new experiences and celebrates her courage as she gains confidence and redefines who she is, for better and for worse. Kôji Yakusho costars as a widower in the English class and Megan Mullally and Reiko Aylesworth have small roles in the American scenes. A film about small triumphs that should appeal to fans of offbeat character studies, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)