Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Film Fest: Damsels in Distress

This is absolutely a love-it or hate-it film.

I kinda loved it.  At least, I'm sure I'll be rewatching it on DVD and probably quoting it.  A lot.

Damsels in Distress is a cleverly written, quirky comedy.  "Chick Flick" is misleading - it's not sentimental or romantic in the way that label usually suggests - but this film is very much from a female point of view.  Enough so to try the patience of some male watchers.

It's very funny.  A sort of intelligent female spin on Animal House.  After the glut of male comedies with flatulence humor, a female comedy with perfume and scented soap jokes is welcome.  "Quirky" just doesn't begin to describe this: there aren't many films that suggest donuts and tap dance as remedies for suicidal depression.  I loved the hostile girl who refused a character a role in the Suicide Prevention Clinic's musical theater production because, since she hadn't visited a clinic, she didn't qualify as "clinically-depressed."  The film is full of serious silliness like this.

Damsels in Distress poster from IMDB


Yet...  honestly, the funny, the humor is soooo very dry, the ridiculousness so absolutely straight-faced, that I often felt puzzled before the joke sank in.  (Obviously I'm just slow.)  I really do think this is a movie I could grow to love after repeated viewings.

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