Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
A remarkable film that works its emotional hooks into an audience with a gradual, assured patience that is astonishing coming from a debut feature filmmaker, this comedy drama is smart, truthful, and (most importantly) genuinely funny. Despite material that is likely to be considered "slight" in the era of commonplace 100-million-dollar-plus productions, director
Christine Lahti's film, particularly coming on the heels of her Oscar win for the short subject
Lieberman in Love (1995), places her in the ranks of such other performers-turned-directors as
Woody Allen and
Clint Eastwood. The script, by former
Seinfeld writer Jill Franklyn, is a sharp, sympathetic examination of two people smart enough to immediately have each other's number, as well as to know that their reclusive tendencies are unhealthy, even in the face of a mutual unwillingness to change. In that sense, the film bears similarities to
As Good As It Gets (1997), a project sure to exceed this one in terms of awards, critical acclaim, and audience attention. That's because, in place of a romantic
pas de deux between
Jack Nicholson and
Helen Hunt, the filmmakers offer up a wistful, didactic friendship between a 49-year-old man and a 17-year-old goth chick. That those roles are filled by actors as iconoclastic as
Albert Brooks, who rarely acts in anything stupid and so rarely acts, and
Leelee Sobieski, a teen who must turn down scores of teen films but has played Joan of Arc, is further indication that mainstream audiences won't find much paint-by-numbers emotional clarity here. The central relationship in the film never becomes sexual, but sexuality is a factor that's not ignored; the characters never quite figure out what exactly it is that attracts them to each other, although there are obvious similarities of temperament and taste that are not immediately apparent on the surface. What My First Mister (2001) does offer is psychological depth, a sense of playfulness about life's frustrations and ambiguities, and challenging questions about the nature of relationships in lieu of pat, reassuring platitudes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide