1996, the best year in movie history, pt. 21: Ed’s next move
You twisted your ankle
I carried you
You got a divorce
So I married you
You fell off a cliff
So I buried you
I wish there were more bad times
To see you through
These lyrics are by Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, a band of four or five urban hippies. Some of them wear overalls and strum little guitars. One guy plays the clarinet.
A pretty girl named Lee (Callie Thorne) sings and plays the violin.
(“They sound like the music from Juno,” Karin says.)
We don’t know much about Lee, except that she is in this band. Eventually, we’ll learn about her unhappy dating history, but that’s almost an afterthought, something to provide a little turmoil for the movie’s last scenes.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Ed (Matt Ross) doesn’t know much about Lee, either, except that she’s willing to give him the time of day.
On occasion.
Barely.
About him, we know more. He’s moved to New York to work in a genetics lab. He studies how to modify the genes of rice plants. The work is very interesting, he tells new acquaintances.
His only previous scientific discovery was accidental. He worries that it ought not to have been credited to him.
He had a painful breakup at home, in Wisconsin. His girlfriend didn’t like it that he’d mapped out the rest of his life before the age of twenty-five (he’d even reserved himself a burial plot).
It isn’t that Ed loves to be in control. It’s that he’s terrified of not being in control.
It’s a foible he’s been working on. His move to New York is a deliberate exercise in character improvement.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
He’s also trying to get better at talking to women (just one woman, really).
Ed and Lee first spot each other at a party. Later, they recognize each other in a diner and introduce themselves. Then Ed talks too much about the book Lee is reading (Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams). She leaves.
Another day, they both witness a traffic accident. They leave their phone numbers for the victim. Ed gets Lee’s number and calls her.
This time, she’s more interested.
She becomes more patient with him.
This is a movie about a nice man working to make himself nicer; about nice people such as Lee and Ray (Ed’s flatmate) cutting him a little slack; and about the nice diner workers who encourage them.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
One scene in the first half of the movie is pretty bad. Ed walks through the Wisconsin countryside with his old girlfriend. Interpreters go with them: a woman to translate “womanspeak” to Ed, and a man to translate “manspeak” to Ed’s girlfriend. It’s like a fantastical scene out of Annie Hall.
It’s bad because the rest of the movie is realistic. Even though he is so awkward, Ed really could attract such a girl as Lee. Lee really could choose to ignore him, then talk to him, then kiss him, then leave him, then come back to him. That wouldn’t be a strange path for a relationship to take.
Lee really could go over to Ed’s apartment, and Ed’s cat really could vomit on her leg. These things happen.
People really do kiss each other as clumsily as Ed and Lee do in this movie. People kiss each other while ill, or while falling off of furniture.
Whether you’d enjoy a movie like Ed’s Next Move depends on whether you’d enjoy watching realistically attractive, awkward people stumble through the early stages of courtship. Not because you cruelly enjoy watching people stumble, but because these characters’ stumblings are, themselves, rather nice.
I carried you
You got a divorce
So I married you
You fell off a cliff
So I buried you
I wish there were more bad times
To see you through
These lyrics are by Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, a band of four or five urban hippies. Some of them wear overalls and strum little guitars. One guy plays the clarinet.
A pretty girl named Lee (Callie Thorne) sings and plays the violin.
(“They sound like the music from Juno,” Karin says.)
We don’t know much about Lee, except that she is in this band. Eventually, we’ll learn about her unhappy dating history, but that’s almost an afterthought, something to provide a little turmoil for the movie’s last scenes.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Ed (Matt Ross) doesn’t know much about Lee, either, except that she’s willing to give him the time of day.
On occasion.
Barely.
About him, we know more. He’s moved to New York to work in a genetics lab. He studies how to modify the genes of rice plants. The work is very interesting, he tells new acquaintances.
His only previous scientific discovery was accidental. He worries that it ought not to have been credited to him.
He had a painful breakup at home, in Wisconsin. His girlfriend didn’t like it that he’d mapped out the rest of his life before the age of twenty-five (he’d even reserved himself a burial plot).
It isn’t that Ed loves to be in control. It’s that he’s terrified of not being in control.
It’s a foible he’s been working on. His move to New York is a deliberate exercise in character improvement.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
He’s also trying to get better at talking to women (just one woman, really).
Ed and Lee first spot each other at a party. Later, they recognize each other in a diner and introduce themselves. Then Ed talks too much about the book Lee is reading (Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams). She leaves.
Another day, they both witness a traffic accident. They leave their phone numbers for the victim. Ed gets Lee’s number and calls her.
This time, she’s more interested.
She becomes more patient with him.
This is a movie about a nice man working to make himself nicer; about nice people such as Lee and Ray (Ed’s flatmate) cutting him a little slack; and about the nice diner workers who encourage them.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
One scene in the first half of the movie is pretty bad. Ed walks through the Wisconsin countryside with his old girlfriend. Interpreters go with them: a woman to translate “womanspeak” to Ed, and a man to translate “manspeak” to Ed’s girlfriend. It’s like a fantastical scene out of Annie Hall.
It’s bad because the rest of the movie is realistic. Even though he is so awkward, Ed really could attract such a girl as Lee. Lee really could choose to ignore him, then talk to him, then kiss him, then leave him, then come back to him. That wouldn’t be a strange path for a relationship to take.
Lee really could go over to Ed’s apartment, and Ed’s cat really could vomit on her leg. These things happen.
People really do kiss each other as clumsily as Ed and Lee do in this movie. People kiss each other while ill, or while falling off of furniture.
Whether you’d enjoy a movie like Ed’s Next Move depends on whether you’d enjoy watching realistically attractive, awkward people stumble through the early stages of courtship. Not because you cruelly enjoy watching people stumble, but because these characters’ stumblings are, themselves, rather nice.