LOLA VERSUS

After Lola has been dumped by her fiance just weeks before the wedding in this rather lightweight rom-com it’s clear that the full title of the piece should have been ‘Lola Versus The World’.  And guess what?  ‘The World’ won in this somewhat annoying struggle that a very whinny Lola has when she tries to find true love and/or happiness when she is suddenly single again.  

Lola and her boyfriend Luke live an idyllic fashionable life in his Manhattan loft …. not that you could ever tell from Luke’s permanent facial expression of disdain/horror.  On her 29th birthday he pops ‘the’ question, and with a big shiny ring on her finger she enlists her mom and also her acid-tongue best friend to spend the next few months in wedding planning mode at full volume.  Then without warning Luke calls it a day ….’I need space’ … so the bride-to-be takes to her bed and milks sympathy for as long as she can.

Now back in her own small apartment and having to find rent, she’s waiting tables again by night to pay for her Doctoral studies.  Egged on by a really supportive mom, and her jaded opinionated best friend, she thinks about dating again.  She tries it with Henry who’s also Luke’s best friend, and with a rather odd stranger who randomly picks her up after discussing the pros of wild salmon at the deli.  Henry has feelings for her, whilst the ‘fish man’ just has a large appendage going for him. There is also the rare furtive quickie with Nick too, but he does have a new girlfriend now.  None of them are good ideas, but it gives Lola an excuse to whine some more.

It’s a disappointing wee film that has all the right indie movie credentials but instead of being edgy and bright, it is as shallow and unrealistic as the lame big budget ‘relationship’ movies that Hollywood churns out. Directed by young Daryl Wein from a script he wrote with his life partner Zoe Lister-Jones who also gave herself some of the best lines in the piece as she played Alice the wacky best friend.

It does have two redeeming qualities. Firstly Lola is played by Greta Gerwig, who, as excellent as she is at being miserable and having bad sex, deserves a much better script/story. She is a wonderful actor to watch,  as is her mother played by the incredible Debra Winger in one of her all too rare cameo performances.  We should see more of Ms Winger … and we should see Ms Gerwig starring in movies that she showcase her talent much better than this.

★★★★★