User Reviews

I just saw CALENDAR GIRL at the Washington DC Independent Film Festival a few days ago. Of all the films featured in the Horror session, I have to say this was the most disappointing, at least for me, in terms of suspense and thrills.

The film starts off well, and takes us slowly into the characters' lives and a possible great third act, for which I was waiting. The actors are few, but effective. The cinematography is terrific, and creates an ominous mood. Early in the film, we're told of the "Calendar Girl" murderer, and as far as suspense goes, that would be it for the rest of the story, really. I'm still not even sure why this film is categorized as "horror", or "thriller", even, as it contains not much of either.

The last act for me was most disappointing, because nothing interesting or fascinating ended up happening; and what did end up happening was weak, to say the least. Maybe it's because this was the last in a series of great horror films that evening that I had such a poor reaction to it; or maybe it's just an ineffective thriller. A decent film for a drama genre, maybe, but definitely not a horror or a thriller at all.

About "Calendar Girl": I do think that the movie was rather professionally done, and it was striking to see some actual if fading stars such as Gilbert Gottfried in the cast. Given the length of the movie, the complexity of the plot, and the number of performers (including extras) in the cast, it doesn't surprise me that it took ten years to complete.

But I do have many reservations about the final product.

First of all, it always seems to me a sign of literary incompetence when just about every third word in a script is "shit" or "fuck". To say that the screenplay was not written with any measure of wit or sophistication is almost an understatement. I wonder if allegedly well-educated young people really talk this way, or whether the creators of "Calendar Girl" were just trying to show us how close they were to understanding "the people". One way or the other, it was exceedingly gross.

Second, even though the film's heroine is supposed to be a tough, insensitive babe who can face anything and handle any situation, it simply defies belief that she could continue in a relationship with her photographer boyfriend after he reveals himself to be the calendar killer. The movie suggests that she actually wants him to murder her and that she feels betrayed when he doesn't do it, but the indifferent and almost loving way she asks him to stay after he has nearly slit her throat seems completely unrealistic. How on Earth could she face him after what she has learned? The lack of anything like psychological realism is truly appalling.

Finally, the ending of the movie is one big gory mess, and it is filmed in so slipshod a manner that I cannot honestly tell you who did what to whom and using what weapon or weapons. To me, it almost seemed as if the producers just wanted to get the whole thing over with and, as a result, the rather careful filming of the earlier sections gave way to one big incomprehensible bloodbath. Ugh! There are a number of other things that bothered me, such as the ugly portrayal of the lawyer's fiancée, who went from being a reasonably attractive figure to a caricatural bitch because she dared to want her fiancé to be loyal to her but, in truth, the movie was so over-the-top that by the time the two of them broke up, I had long given up on finding any subtleties or insights to hold on to. The movie took ten years to finish -- it was, we were told, a "labor of love" -- but maybe those ten years could have been spent more profitably producing something else.

On the other hand, as a 90-minute commercial for the Aramingo Diner, it was top-drawer!