Good Golly, It's Molly!

January 12, 2007

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Between Christmas and New Years, my generous friend Steve Silverman invited me to be part of a group of friends hanging out in a cozy cabin in Big Bear, CA. Our first night there, after a hearty dinner of my friend Danny’s spaghetti, we discussed our various options for the evening. I suggested we watch a movie I just picked up called Molly.

See, back in 2002, when my book “Screening Party” came out, I remember talking with a woman at a reading who said that Molly was her favorite movie to watch with a roomful of mouthy friends. I had meant to check Molly out ever since but I just never got around to it. Then a few weeks ago at Video West in Studio City, I saw that they had a used VHS copy on sale for $1 marked down from $3.

I have to say it was the best dollar I ever spent. The movie was over an hour and a half long and I have to say, it felt like twenty minutes.

Now, I get that this is touchy territory but I think if you’re going to do a movie about a mentally or physically disabled person, you really need to have all your ducks in a row — writing, acting, directing, hell, even the catering — or you’ll end up getting laughs when you want to be getting Oscars.

Molly’s ducks are all over the place.

Though there are lots of scenes early in the film of Molly doing things like jumping into fountains and bursting naked into her brother’s important work presentation, I’m most obsessed with post-surgery Molly. This is when she starts using words like “exponentially” and adjusting to life as a functioning adult. The problem — demonstrated in a particularly cringe-inducing restaurant scene involving a manic lobster rescue—is that “normal” Molly turns out to be a judgmental pain in the ass. So it’s really not that big of a bummer when she starts to revert to her pre-surgery state. I could go on and on but suffice it to say, from this point on, my life will be forever divided into two parts: Before Molly and After Molly. If that sounds like an entertaining evening to you, check it out and let me know if you agree.

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