She's So Lovely

For the song by Scouting for Girls, see She's So Lovely (song).

She's So Lovely is a 1997 American romantic drama film written by John Cassavetes and directed by his son Nick Cassavetes. At the time of its release, it received special attention because, eight years after his death, it was the first (and still only) film to feature previously unreleased material from John Cassavetes. The film stars Sean Penn and John Travolta as two men who bid for the affection of Maureen Murphy Quinn (Robin Wright). Harry Dean Stanton co-stars as a friend of Penn's character, and James Gandolfini plays the abusive neighbor.

She's So Lovely
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nick Cassavetes
Written by	John Cassavetes
Produced by	René Cleitman Gérard Depardieu Harvey Weinstein Bob Weinstein Sean Penn John Travolta
Starring	Sean Penn Robin Wright Penn Harry Dean Stanton Debi Mazar John Travolta
Cinematography	Thierry Arbogast
Edited by	Petra von Oelffen
Music by	Joseph Vitarelli
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date	August 29, 1997 (1997-08-29)
Running time	100 minutes
Countries	United States France
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Box office	$7,281,450

Plot

Eddie Quinn's unruly wife Maureen drinks and smokes to excess, even though she is pregnant. Eddie has troubles of his own, disappearing for days at a time. When she is physically and sexually assaulted by Kiefer, a neighbor, it is more than Eddie can handle. He shoots someone and lands in a psychiatric hospital.

Ten years go by. Eddie finally returns, only to find Maureen is now a clean, sober, solid citizen, married to a new man, Joey, and a mother of three children, one of whom is Eddie's own daughter. Eddie's return complicates and endangers all of their lives.

Cast

• Sean Penn as Eddie Quinn
• Robin Wright as Maureen Murphy Quinn
• John Travolta as Joey Giamonti
• Harry Dean Stanton as Tony "Shorty" Russo
• Debi Mazar as Georgie
• James Gandolfini as Kiefer
• David Thornton as Saul Sunday
• Susan Traylor as Lucinda
• Bobby Cooper as Cooper
• John Marshall Jones as Leonard
• Kelsey Mulrooney as Jennie
• Neill Barry as Michael
• Gena Rowlands as Miss Jane Green
• Chloe Webb as Nancy Swearingen
• James Soravilla as Avi
• Jamie Bozian as Intern #1 (as James Bozian)
• Paul Johansson as Intern #2
• Justina Machado as Carmen Rodriguez as Lady Ticket Taker
• Tito Larriva as Lead Singer

Production

The film was co-produced by a French company, with funding from actor Gérard Depardieu, and René Cleitman^[1] for Hachette. Depardieu, a friend of the Cassavetes family, had already produced Nick Cassavetes' first film, Unhook the Stars. At Depardieu's request, John Travolta accepted to act in the film for $1 million, much lower than his usual salary.^[2]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 66% of 41 critics' reviews are positive.^[3] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[4]

Movie critic Roger Ebert rated the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times: "What [Nick Cassavetes] understands is that if you want to see true weirdness, you don't look along skid row, where the motives are pretty easy to understand, but out in suburbia, where those green lawns can surround human time bombs."^[5] Writing in Time Out New York, Andrew Johnston remarked, "Watching the films of John Cassavetes now, one is struck by how complex and human his characters are, compared with those in even the most sophisticated of today's independent films. This effect is even more pronounced in She's So Lovely, an unproduced Cassavetes script given the '90s treatment and filled with stars by the late director's son. The final product features some of the year's best performances...."^[6]

Awards

Sean Penn won the award for Best Actor at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.^[7] Robin Wright received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role at the 4th Screen Actors Guild Awards.