LOLA VERSUS

LOLA VERSUS

Greta Gerwig is, what Hollywood considers, a hot property. She is getting an increasing amount of work because she is very pretty, rather talented and fairly tall [for Hollywood types] at five feet eight inches.

Her career started picking up after "Baghead" when she was cast "The House of the Devil" and then "Greenberg" in which she was the only interesting character. 2011 saw her in "No Strings Attached", "The Dish and the Spoon" and "Arthur" - again where she was the only interesting character.

There must be some sort of pattern, because she is cast in Woody Allen's film "To Rome with Love" which I'm assuming will bring her back to playing and interesting character. Because in "Lola Versus" she is about as boring a character as one could be.

She plays Lola, a 29-year old Brooklynite who is waiting tables (at her mom's restaurant), engaged and working on her doctoral dissertation.

She is going along happily one day a few weeks before the wedding day when her fiance Luke (Joel Kinnaman) backs out of the wedding and basically dumps her.

She is, as one might guess, an emotional wreck as she seeks support as well as answers from those closest to her. First her ex-hippie, possible pot-smoking parents played by a perfectly cast Debra Winger and Bill Pullman.

Then her two closest friends Alice (Zoe Lister Jones) and Henry (Hamish Linklater) who later seem like they are trying to develop their own relationship. Zoe, encourages Lola to drown her sorrows in sex by screwing every guy she encounters. You know, give the old vagina a good work out!

Of course, one of the first to step up to the plate is Henry. After him a regular chorus line of guys with who she plays a silly game pretending she is unavailable when in fact she's ready to get sexed.

In between are a bunch of unrelated gags and one-liners strung together like a Henny Youngman jokebook. Lister Jones makes the most of hers as do Winger and Pullman.

In fact, the support cast is what bails out "Lola Versus" because Gerwig doesn't. First as she is playing a totally unbelievable character. The way she plays it the film should be titled "PhD Candidate Does New York". In this day and age, it's not likely that an informed person would purposely have a streaming number of casual sex encounters. I think the film - though under 90 minutes - would have had a better kick if she had learned she contracted AIDS during her romp. Then maybe she could finish with a punch line of "Oops!"

But no, that's not what happens.

Greta Gerwig is a pretty girl with talent. She would probably do better to get a new agent and discontinue with film projects that don't suit her.

"Lola Versus" would probably have been better as a one of those raunchy gang-bang films with a light touch of comedy, then you wouldn't mind the films lack of cohesiveness. -- GEOFF BURTON

GEOFF BURTON

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