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David Gordon Green's "All the Real Girls" may be, by far, the most realistic love story to ever be put up on the screen. The characters aren't smart, rich, great-looking people who deliever monologues on how their feeling at any given moment. Instead their simple, middleclass, average-looking folks who can't exactly say what they feel because the words just come out in jumbles and missing key sentences. From the first five minutes of this film, I was in love. Set in a small town in North Carolina, "All the Real Girls" opens up like a good twenty minutes of the picture is already missing. We're dropped in on Paul and Noel at the end of what might be their first or their fifth date. We're then thrown into a morning walk with Paul and his friends where they talk about things that aren't going to matter 90 minutes later when the credits begin to roll. It's just another wasted day for these characters and just another wasted conversation. Just like the many wasted conversations we have day after day. The story is a simple one that I'm sure we've seen before, however never put together this perfectly. Paul, played by long-time friend and collaborator of Green's, Paul Schneider, is a guy who's been through over two dozen of the town's female population. He's never felt anything for any of them and he certainly has never felt love. However, that all changes when Noel, the sister of Paul's best friend, Tip, comes back into town. Noel is played by Zooey Deschanel, who because of roles in Cameron Crowe's perfect "Untitled" and the Will Ferrell vehicle "Elf," may just be the most recognizable face. Paul and Noel begin spending time together, which infuriates Tip because he sees in his best friend everything he hates in himself and he doesn't want his sister to have any part of it. Of course, what Tip doesn't know is Paul sees everything that he needs to be a better man in Noel. And he falls in love with her for that. It seems, almost at first, that where the story is going is unkown. However, Green fills these moments with beautiful realistic scenes you wouldn't see in any Hollywood movie. Take for instance Noel and Paul's first intimate moment: In a regular Hollywood flick, it would be perfect. Clothing would be coming off easily and the man would look at the women the way all women probably want us men to look at them. However, in Green's film, the more realistic film, the characters struggle at getting each other's clothes off and there are just "too many damn stuffed animals" on the bed for the man to even become comfortable enough with the thought of not falling, not to mention to even begin to look at the women the way Hollywood says we should. For me, though, the most important and refreshingly realistic look at love Green gives us is by showing us what dorks love really makes us all become. He allows us to be there when these two characters share the unimportant dribble that makes them who they are. He allows us to watch these two characters share stories with each other that, if they weren't falling in love, they wouldn't care to hear. And he allows us to see a grown man ask the women he loves to turn around so he can do his happy dance; a dance he does because of her. Of course, there wouldn't be a story unless something happens and finally, a third of the way through the film, something pretty crucial does. The story that we feel we have been watching for the past 70-some minutes sort of ends there and we're left with twenty more minutes of film that feels to be somewhat dragging. However, it's still done perfectly by Green's direction and the beautiful sounds of Michael Linnen and David Wingo's score. "All the Real Girls" isn't going to be liked by the average movie watcher. The story is somewhat slow and at points feels improvised. Like "In the Bedroom," you have to give your all to the film before going in and then leave all your expectations at the door. For me, however, this film and "In the Bedroom" are prime examples of outstanding filmmaking and they possess a key element that so many films these days are lacking: a REAL story. It's films like these that inspire so many others. And it's films like these that need to be seen. "All the Real Girls" won both the Special Jury Prize and the Grand Jury Prize at 2003's Sundance Festival and I can clearly see why. In an interview, director David Gordon Green said that the film is just a real "low-budget film." That may be so, however I hope he realizes how real remarkable it is, as well. email this review to a friend
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