Someone to Love

Having re-lived, in Always, the dissolution of his own marriage, Jaglom here confronts the dilemma of post-marital solitude: try again, or opt for autonomy? Film-maker Danny (Jaglom) wants to settle down, but girlfriend Helen (Marcovicci, Jaglom's real-life girlfriend) is reluctant to surrender her independence. Curious why so many of his peers live alone, Danny hosts a party in an abandoned theatre, and invites his guests to open up for the camera. Only Jaglom/Danny's friend and mentor Orson Welles - his last performance - injects some objectivity into the proceedings. Orson's observations on film, feminism ('the great revolution of our times'), marriage etc. are as wittily perceptive as one might expect; but our Henry lacks any proper perspective on his own reactionary mores, and seems as ill-equipped as Danny to divorce life from the movies. As an exercise in creative editing and a sociological document, the film is occasionally fascinating; but its endless romantic confessions and airhead philosophising make you want to scream.