(1997) It's spring in New York City; couples are singing "Just You, Just Me" - Holden Spence (Edward Norton) to his fiancée Skylar Dandridge (Drew Barrymore) - as manikins dance in the window displays, in this fantasy romance as told by Djuna "DJ" Berlin (Natasha Lyonne), a student at Columbia, who was advised to make it into a musical comedy because "no one's gonna believe it."

Skylar is DJ's stepsister, oldest daughter of her stepfather Bob Dandridge (Alan Alda), a successful lawyer and liberal Democrat, married to her mother Steffi (Goldie Hawn), a guilty-for-having-been-raised-wealthy liberal Democrat (who throws soirees for charitable causes); they live in a penthouse with Skylar's stepbrother Scott (Lucas Haas), the only conservative Republican in the family; two half-sisters, Lane (Gaby Hoffmann) and Laura (Natalie Portman); Grandpa (Bob's demented father); and Frieda the maid.

At DJ's best friend Claire's home the girls listen through a peephole as Claire's mother, a psychiatrist, treats her clients, one of whom is Von Sidell (Julia Roberts).

DJ's biological father Joe Berlin (Woody Allen, who, by the way, actually wrote and directed the film), a novelist, lives in Paris, with whom she spends her summers, also visits New York and enjoys a long friendship with Bob and his former spouse. "You always pick the wrong woman," Steffi commiserates with Joe after another failed relationship, determined to be a matchmaker with "someone to match up with his personality." Bob observes: "He's still in love with you."

At Harry Winston's Holden, a young lawyer with Bob's firm, accompanied by DJ, looks for an engagement ring, deciding on an $8,000, one-and-a-half carats solitaire diamond before singing "My baby just cares for me" along with the jewelry staff's singing and dancing. Following DJ's recommendation of setting the ring atop a parfait, which the waiter brings to his beloved in the restaurant where he intends to propose to her, he watches in astonishment as she spoons it into her mouth and swallows it. Taken to the hospital for x-rays, Skylar sees her ring inside her gut; the hospital staff and patients break into song: "That's what you get, folks, for makin' whoopee."

In Venice with her dad, still moody and haunted over the loss of his latest love, DJ recognizes Von (what a coincidence) with her husband Greg. Knowing that Von, an art historian, is unhappily married, DJ tells her dad (though he's twice Von's age) that she's "perfect for you." First she suggests ("Trust me") he try jogging for an accidental encounter in the (empty in summer?) streets of Venice. Next she helps him brush up on the painter Tintoretto (Von's favorite artist) to make a strong impression in an (all but vacant?) art museum rencounter.

DJ further plies her father with Von's favorite symphony (Mahler's 4th), vacation spot (Bora Bora), flower (African daisy), and other tidbits to create the man of Von's dreams. She then takes him to a party (crowded with guests) to introduce him to her fiancé Alberto, a gondolier and poet, whom she met five days earlier; but back in New York she falls for Ken at the baggage claim and forgets about Alberto as the couple snuggle to "Cuddle Up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine" in Hindi by their crooning, turbaned-and-bearded cabbie.

For Steffi's birthday party, Holden's parents, Arnold (David Ogden Stiers) and Lynn Spence, have been invited along with Steffi's newest project, the recently-paroled-from-prison Charles Ferry (Tim Roth), who makes acquaintance with Skylar on the balcony (unable to keep his hands off her) and sings to her, "I could show the world how to smile … If I had you."

After Grandpa dies, the family, sitting in front of the casket at the funeral home, begin asking one another the meaning of life, when the spirit arises and raises his voice: "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think…." (other ghosts join in) "It's better to have your wish / Than wish you had."

With the falling of leaves in autumn, everyone seems to be falling out of love; Skylar calls off her wedding with Holden. On Halloween trick-or-treaters burst into song and dance.

It's winter in Paris when the Dandridges visit Joe; Bob comes down with a bad cold but insists on Steffi's going out with Joe (once again moping), both wearing paste-on mustaches, to the Groucho Marx Club where impersonators dance and sing "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" in French. (With a cigar between his fingers, Woody Allen strikingly looks and sounds much like Groucho.) As Groucho once said: "Humor is reason gone mad."

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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