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Crush

2002, Movie, R, 112 mins

Crush: Review

CRUSH
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Three longtime friends in their 40s meet weekly to bemoan the dismal state of their love lives, until one of them spoils the fun by falling head over heels — with a 25-year-old, yet. Kate (Andie MacDowell), Molly (Anna Chancellor) and Janine (Imelda Staunton) all live in small town in England's Cotswalds region; it's picturesque as all get out, but also the sort of place where everyone knows your business and no one ever lets you forget it. Plucky police constable Janine is divorced and coping with her sullen teenaged son's rocky road through adolescence. Glamorous Molly, a doctor, has been married three times and is always on the lookout for a new well-to-do suitor, even though her nameless exes are recalled in such terms as "Mr. Unspeakable Lying Bastard." Both of them encourage headmistress Kate, a transplanted American (ours is not to ask why), to put the moves on Gerald (Bill Paterson), the local vicar, a thoroughly decent sort who's clearly nursing a major crush. But Kate, a romantic at heart, is waiting for the man who gives her butterflies in her stomach and that's not Gerald — Molly's tart observation that finding an unmarried man over the age of 40 who doesn't have anything wrong with him is nothing short of a miracle notwithstanding. They've dubbed their weekly get-togethers "the sad f**kers club," and after each gripefest a box of chocolate biscuits goes to the one who tells the most pathetic, self-lacerating story of lovelorn foolishness. Their comfy routine changes when Kate embarks on a reckless affair with young Jed (Kevin Doughty), the newly hired organist at Gerald's church. Kate herself can't quite believe what she's doing; Jed is almost young enough to be her son — he used to be her student, for heaven's sake. But sparks fly, and the spring in her step and smile on her face don't go down well with her mopey girlfriends. Spiteful Molly convinces Janine that Jed is just going to hurt Kate, and works out an elaborate plan to prove that he's a faithless lout, a plan that has grave and unforeseen consequences. The melodramatic twist that follows is a bit out of sync with the larky highjinks that precede it, and the movie never quite recovers the spring in its step. But MacDowell, Staunton and Chancellor are terrific, tearing into their juicy roles and reveling in first-time feature writer-director Jim McKay's sharp-tongued dialogue. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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