The comically gifted Alicia Witt is proposed to, then dumped, within 24 hours, setting off a Murphy's Law domino effect in this breakup recovery screwball comedy that invokes the spirit of Woody Allen--that is, if Woody Allen were a comely, quizzical, capriciously miserable 23-year-old redhead from San Francisco. Hounded by her busybody family wanting to chicken-soup her heart and a vivacious best friend (Brooke Langton) trying to fix her up with men, Witt also loses her apartment in an earthquake, forcing her to move back in with her flaky folks (Marlo Thomas and Elliott Gould) and bear bitter witness to her blissful sister's wedding preparations. Director Matthew Huffman makes some rookie mistakes, but the sharp, witty writing of the idiosyncratic screenplay makes up for most of them. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)
Playing Mona Lisa
Touchstone, 98 min., R, VHS: $103.99, DVD: $32.99, Apr. 17 Vol. 16, Issue 2
Playing Mona Lisa
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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