Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

8/1/06

Star Miranda July's directorial debut, Me and You and Everyone We Know, tells a number of interconnected stories about people desperately looking for love, or perhaps more specificly companionship. July (who looks and sounds remarkably like Rachel Griffith) is Christine Jesperson, an aspiring amateur video artist, who works providing transportation services to the elderly. John Hawkes is Richard Swersey, a shoe salesman with two kids (Miles Thompson and Brandon Ratclift) whose wife is divorcing him. The two meet by chance at the department store where Richard works, and while Christine quite quickly decides she'd like to start a new relationship, Richard is having a hard time letting go of his old one. The movie feels like a slightly more upbeat version of Welcome to the Dolls House, or a sort of post modern take on Marty by way of Crash . The secondary plots, which involve Richards children, the young girl next door, an elderly couple, another shoe salesman, two teenage girls, and the director of a local art museum, mostly come together in the end although to differing degrees of effectiveness. However the fine line of tastefulness is so often walked in the film that its intended sense of joy feels a little muted. I didn't feel like the movie quite reached its full promise, though it did get close.