Head Over Heels

I am a little unclear about what moves the female protagonist to act as she does, but since a woman wrote the novel and another woman wrote the screen play and directed the film, who am I to quarrel with that? The male protagonist is older than I was when I suffered the way he does. I sympathize with his pain, and the movie makers are right about the common response to it - trivial violence, rather than the tragedy of commonplace film.

I think it is a very good film. My only reservation is that an excessive amount of it occurs in the man's car, but I guess that's life in Salt Lake City.

I have always loved this film, ever since I first saw it in its re-release as "CSOW" in 1982. I have never seen the "Head Over Heels" version, thankfully. What really hit me then was the parallel to an obsessive love affair I had just experienced. I was dumped by a woman I met at work, and it was several months before I got over it. I had an unfulfilling, drab office job, and an unemployed roommate sharing a house with me.

As a film, what makes this so special is its lack of pretense. The characters are as flawed as they are lovable. The relationship between Charles and his mother is as unsettling as it is comical. Even though Charles is a self-obsessed jerk, his simple devotion to the one wonderful, transcendent thing in his life - the love he and Laura shared - is endearing. He is not so much a stalker as someone who simply cannot bear the thought of returning to the uneventful, empty life he knew before Laura.

This whimsical if inconsequential romantic comedy owes a lot of its idiosyncrasies to 'Annie Hall', but while not in the same league as Woody Allen it has an offbeat charm all its own. The original, numbskull title 'Head Over Heels' aptly describes love struck civil servant John Heard's fixation with married girlfriend Mary Beth Hurt. Neither character is particularly complicated, but an eccentric secondary cast and some unpredictable plot lines keep the film buoyant and enjoyable even at its most superficial, although it helps to share some of the couple's featherweight romantic angst. The script was adapted from a novel by Ann Beattie.

This movie is a nice lil' gem, and notable for future lumanaries such as Animal House's Peter Reigert, Griffin Dunne (treemendous in After Hours) and John Heard (late of the Sopranos). But, the real steal in the film is Ms. Violet Bick herself, Jimmy Stewart's guilty pleasure in It's a Wonderful Life: Gloria Grahame.

A brilliant film. Check it out. Marvellous in so many ways. Acting, script, you name it, it's great. It's a fantastic "little" film as they would say, but the "little" ones are often the best. So many small and subtle moments that make it quite memorable.