"Love and Other Catastrophes" A Film Review by Linda Lopez McAlister on "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM 88.5, Tampa, FL April 12, 1997 I was in New York for a couple of days this week, and when I go there or some other class 1 film city, I'm always on the lookout for good "women and film" type films that haven't made it to Tampa yet. I wasn't disappointed and actually found several to choose from but only time to see one. The one I chose was the feature film debut of a new Australian woman filmmaker named Emma-Kate Croghan. She bills her new film, "Love and Other Catastrophes" as a "screwball comedy," since she's clearly enamored of film history and the fast paced, witty, romantic comedies of the 1930s that you think of when you hear the term. I don't think the classics of this genre have to worry about being overtaken by this film, however. While it was cute and moderately enjoyable, it felt more like a long episode of "Friends" than a snappy '30s number. This film apparently did well at the Sundance Film Festival--well enough to find a distributor anyway. But I, for one, am getting a bit tired of film school students or graduates making films about film school students or graduates making films or wanting to make films. I know the old saws that tell you to write about what you know, but these films get a bit incestuous. Emma- Kate Croghan is only twenty-three, so I assume she'll grow out of this phase. Meanwhile, she gives us a film about five university students, two of whom, Mia (played by Frances O'Connor) and Alice (played by Alice Garner) are film students at Melbourne University. The plot of "Love and Other Catastrophes" is pretty thin and ever so contrived, though it almost succeeds in making a virtue out of this weakness. Alice, who has an enormous writer's block on her thesis entitled "Doris Day as Feminist Warrior" (!) is also blocked in the area of romance. She's looking for Mr. Right, but has her eye on Ari, a womanizing Classics student and part-time gigolo who's definitely Mr. Wrong for her. She lives in a newly renovated loft apartment with a roommate, Mia (Frances O'Connor), and they are seeking a third. Mia is a lesbian whose relationship with Danni (Radha Mitchell) is in crisis so she doesn't want Danni to move in, which only intensifies the crisis and sends Danni into the waiting arms of Savita (Suzi Dougherty). On the day the film takes place Mia is rushing around trying to change majors from film to cultural studies and running into a buzz saw of bureaucratic regulations and uncooperative professors while Alice is interviewing potential roommates and getting to know Ari. She's the last to know that a medical student and Mel Gibson look-alike named Mike (Matt Day) is really the man of her dreams and meets all of her requirements for a man, including liking the very same movies she likes. The most endearing thing about this film is its youthful exuberance. The characters are likeable and everyone is obviously having a great time making this movie. It kind of reminds me of a kid doing a magic trick; it's so simple that everyone can see how it's done and knows what's happening the whole time, but when the kid finishes with a flourish and is so pleased with his accomplishment the audience cheers and is pleased too. Well, somewhat pleased. Emma-Kate Croghan obviously has talent as a filmmaker and shows promise. In this film, it seemed to me that she overdid the directorial inventiveness bit in various ways--another characteristic of youthful exuberance in a director (remember "Citizen Kane"). But we can hope that in the future she'll have more to say, more plot to work with, and there will be real need for some of the directorial/editorial/cinematographic inventions that seem, in this film, just showing off. Another nice thing about the film is the way the three lesbian characters are handled, i.e., not at all. That Mia is a lesbian is no big deal and is taken perfectly as a matter of course by all the characters in the film. When she's distraught over the break-up she's consoled by people of various genders and orientations. When she and Danni get back together everyone celebrates with them. This sets a nice tone that says, whatever your sexuality is, it's O.K. I don't know if "Love and Other Catastrophes" will ever come to Tampa, deprived as we are of the really nice venues for independent and foreign films that such cities as New York and Philadelphia have. But if it does and you want to see a really light, fluffy, good-natured comedy about young college students and filmmakers, this is your film. For the WMNF Women's Show, this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film. Copyright 1997. All rights reserved. Please do not copy or reproduce this review without permission of the author: mcaliste@chuma.cas.usf.edu.