‘A beautiful girl can make you dizzy…’
I should begin by just confirming that this is a review of a film called Beautiful Girls and that I’m not just writing a review about the concept of beautiful girls. That would be strange and creepy. Having said that, strange and creepy are also two adjectives that could accurately describe Beautiful Girls…
When Willie Conway (Timothy Hutton) heads back to his hometown of Knights Ridge, Massachusetts, he soon settles down into familiar routines with his small town buddies. Tommy (Matt Dillon) is still keeping a mistress, Paul (Michael Rapaport) is still obsessed with supermodels and Gina (Rosie O’Donnell) is still outspoken and abrasive. Despite being largely likeable, these guys engage in the kind of girl talk that you wouldn’t really see in a Hollywood movie these days. But this was the 90s and it was a different time, and it’s all mostly harmless. More sinister however is a subplot that sees Willie falling for his 13-year-old next door neighbour Marty (Natalie Portman). Despite his protestations that it isn’t a sexual thing, Willie also mentions how in 10 years the age gap will be more socially acceptable. I mean… that feels an awful lot like grooming from where I’m stood.
While the burgeoning relationship between Willie and Marty is presented as being sweet and mostly innocent, Portman herself was so traumatised by the experience that she turned down any parts that were in any way sexual after making this film in order to try and control her own narrative and while attitudes towards gender and relationships were definitely different in 1996, the situation between Willie and Marty would absolutely still have been weird then, indeed, Willie’s friends compare him to both Roman Polanski (accused of raping a 13-year-old model) and Jerry Lee Lewis (married his 13-year-old cousin). It’s all very strange.
And yet, if you ignore that subplot, Beautiful Girls is smart, funny and salient. Scott Rosenberg’s script is packed full of memorable one lines, the cast share a wonderful chemistry (possibly as a consequence of living together for three weeks before shooting began) and the plot manages to weave a number of different complicated elements together into something cohesive. Hutton is great, it’s clear from this performance why Portman went on to be such a star and the motley crue that both stifle and support Willie on his return home all have a blast.
Despite being well received at the time, it feels like Beautiful Girls has been swept under the carpet a little bit (for obvious reasons) but if you can see past the elephant in the room, you are left with one of the most effective relationship movies of the 90s.