Wisegirls
Comedy and crime melodrama blend smoothly in David Anspaugh's "Wisegirls", a female buddy movie about three waitresses at an Italian restaurant on Staten Island. This is a movie that could almost be a play because the action seldom leaves this crowded diner, with its hardworking staff and testosterone-revved wiseguys trying to relax with food and alcohol. Working from a tight, well-balanced screenplay by John Meadows, Anspaugh goes for a lively surface but one with a strong emotional undertow.
With Mira Sorvino, Mariah Carey and Melora Walters starring, this is a crime movie that also is a "chick flick". Lions Gate has not finalized its domestic release plans, but the upside potential is promising. Indeed, "Wisegirls" is almost too commercially slick for the Sundance festival.
Sorvino gives a spirited performance as Meg, a former medical student fleeing a tragic past. She moves in with her ailing grandmother on the Island and takes a job at a restaurant more mobbed up than the three "Godfather" movies combined. Her comrades-in-arms are Carey's gregarious but hardened Raychel, who dares the mobsters to get cute with her, and Walters' Kate, who like Meg has escaped Manhattan but still dreams of an acting career. The story moves from easy comedy about the perils of on-the-job training to the intertwining of the women's lives as they bond to form a united front at the male-dominated eatery.
Gradually, Meg realizes that her mere presence at such an establishment compromises her ethics and might get her in trouble with the law. Then the owner (Arthur J. Nascarella), who has grown fond of a waitress from whom he can get free medical advice, drops hints of the matrimonial availability of his cocky, dangerous son (Christian Maelen). As Meg struggles with these issues, she is witness to a murder.
The piece plays as well as it does thanks in large measure to Anspaugh's three lead actresses. One anticipates a strong performance from Sorvino, especially in a role written with some depth, and she doesn't disappoint. Following rave reviews for her drug addict in "Magnolia", Walters too delivers predictably stellar work as a woman whose complexities emerge gradually.
But who knew about Carey? Those scathing notices for "Glitter" will be a forgotten memory for the singer once people warm up to Raychel. She's a don't-mess-with-me woman who develops a joyous sense of family in friendship with her fellow waitresses.
Linda Burton's restaurant set works terrifically, and Johnny E. Jensen's camera glides effortlessly through its large, well-lit interiors. "Wisegirls" can't help suffering a bit from overfamiliarity; we've been in this restaurant in too many movies already. But Anspaugh and his actors bring enough vigor to the enterprise that the film comes off as a well-done genre piece rather than yesterday's leftovers. (The Hollywood Reporter)
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