Really Surprised!

best movie i've ever seen.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is a quirky, spoofy look at actors trying to make it, yet still having to work to make rent. This one works as a waiter. The writer- director managed to get a large number of talented "name" actors, some with fairly brief parts, to appear in this. It is just a fun viewing. I found it on Netflix streaming movies.My sole reason for seeing it was for Daniel von Bargen, who died way too young last year. I knew Dan in college, we both were in a long running student musical at Purdue in 1969. He was an actor, I became a Scientist. He has a role here auditioning actors for a movie, the whole scene at about 90 minutes into the movie is only 4 minutes long but it is a good glimpse of von Bargen.The nominal star is Matthew Modine as Joe. He and his long-time girlfriend, Catherine Keener as Mary, share an apartment in Manhattan. She works as a makeup artist, mostly for advertising photo shoots, he is a mostly out-of-work actor who pays bills with a job as a waiter for special events.I enjoyed it.

The business with the old lady and her lost-then-found dog does have a reason for being in the movie. It's always a hefty clue when a filmmaker places something at the beginning or end that it IS something especially significant. In this case it has to do with the entire meat of the story (not to be confused with its distractions) and is emphasized by its placement at BOTH the beginning AND the end of the movie. The tiny, seemingly random tale of the old woman and her dog thereby brackets everyone else's story. Why?The central question of the movie is, is simple comfortable domesticity with another being enough? Enough to give up your ideals, however out of whack they may be, enough to really confront your personal issues, enough to turn down the chance to explore intriguing new territories with someone else? Is it worth everything you go through and give up just to save a relationship that seems closer to mere companionship than to your earth-shattering romantic fantasies? One look at the old lady's face when she stares at her dog's empty dish, and then again when she sees him limping back to her, will give you the filmmaker's answer.

"The Real Blonde" is an easy going romantic comedy with the emphasis on comedy which sticks Modine and Keener in the midst of an ample cast of familiar faces as it spins its lukewarm but likeable story of sitcom type couple vicissitudes. Somewhat ill focused and lacking in coherence but always upbeat and busy, "TRB" makes a good couch potato flick for those in the mood for romantic comedy. (B-)

This is a bizarre movie, an intelligent and and fairly subtle story wrapped in a glossy Melrose Place setting. OK, so the title didn´t have much to do with the movie itself, maybe the intended message got a bit lost on the way; but overall it comes out as a solid and entertaining piece of film making.