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LOLA VERSUS Send This Review to a Friend
The problem with following the life of someone in a deep funk is that depression can be boring, especially when there is no indication that the person trying to sort out problems is anyone of great interest in the first place. That’s the basic trouble with “Lola Versus,” a well-made film in which Greta Gerwig, as good an actress as she is, plays Lola, a New Yorker who is approaching 30 and is suddenly jilted by her indecisive jerk of a boyfriend Luke (Joel Kinnaman) three weeks before their planned wedding.
Lola is understandably devastated in this drama directed by Daryl Wein and written by the director with Zoe Lister-Jones. The film follows Lola’s subsequent path of feeling sorry for herself, the intricacies of her relationships and the self-destructive choices that she makes along the road to self-discovery and trying to get a handle on life.
She has a close male friend, Henry (Hamish Linklater), and there could be romance there.
She has a close woman friend, Alice (Zoe Lister-Jones, the co-author). Close friends can be harmful, too, especially when Lola helps create the situation by her own behavior. Lola is at a stage when she is trying to break loose, do some exploring and follow her sexual urges. She is also faced with pressure and advice from her parents, played y Debra Winger and Bill Pullman.
I can see where other women in her predicament might bond with the film and find it entertaining, instructive or both. But there is nothing about Lola as a character, at least from what is shown us, that makes it worth dealing with her angst and, for that matter, her life. Gerwig is an appealing actress, but she deserves more than a role like this.
A Fox Searchlight Pictures release.
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