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Choose Me

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This article is about the 1984 film. For the short story collection by Evelyn Lau, see Choose Me (short story collection). For the Band-Maid song, see Daydreaming/Choose Me.
Choose Me
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAlan Rudolph
Written byAlan Rudolph
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJan Kiesser
Edited byMia Goldman
Music by
Production
company
Distributed byIsland Alive
Release dates
  • May 1984 (1984-05) (Cannes)
  • August 29, 1984 (1984-08-29) (United States)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$835,000[1]
Box office$2 million[1]

Choose Me is a 1984 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Alan Rudolph, starring Geneviève Bujold, Keith Carradine, and Lesley Ann Warren. The film is a look at sex and love in 1980s Los Angeles centered around a dive bar known as Eve's Lounge.

Plot

After being released from a mental hospital, where his stories are perceived as lies, Mickey returns to Los Angeles in search of someone named Eve. Arriving at the bar that bears her name, he is attracted to the new owner, a former call girl also named Eve. She says she bought the bar after the old owner killed herself, "over some guy". The bar is a popular spot for patrons looking for one-night stands, as well as prostitutes looking for potential clients. Despite being also attracted to Mickey, Eve refuses to commit to any one man, confessing to French radio talk show host Dr. Nancy Love that she ruined too many marriages to have one of her own. That night, Eve rebuffs Mickey's advances and sleeps with a bartender, while avoiding Zack, the wealthy married man she is having an affair with.

That same night, Dr. Nancy Love answered Eve's ad for a roommate to share her house, and moves in the next day. Concealing her identity, Nancy begins to observe Eve's romantic entanglements while counseling Eve through her radio show. When Zack calls looking for Eve, Nancy asks penetrating questions and begins dispensing relationship advice, despite the fact that she herself has been unable to maintain a successful relationship. Zack in turn resumes his pursuit of Eve, although his wife, Pearl, has secretly begun to haunt the bar hoping to catch him in flagrante.

Mickey returns to the bar the next night when he cannot pay for a bus ticket home to Las Vegas. Pearl asks his opinion of a poem, and when she argues his interpretation, Mickey reveals that he taught poetry, as well as being a photographer and a former soldier. Eve is intrigued but cool, and Mickey leaves when Pearl offers to get him into a hot card game where he can obtain the money for a ticket home. When she drops him off, Mickey kisses Pearl and asks her to marry him. She laughs, calling him crazy, invites him to drop by her place, and gives him Eve's address and phone number. At the game, Mickey wins big, earning the ire of Zack. Zack warns Mickey not to come back, before going to meet Eve. She in turn sends Zack away, announcing their affair is over.

Mickey goes to Pearl's apartment to crash, and when he wakes up begins taking pictures as she sleeps. She is just waking up when Zack walks in, still stinging from Eve's rejection, and attacks Mickey, pulling a gun and taking back the money he lost. He slaps Pearl after Mickey runs out, assuming they slept together.

Mickey calls Eve's house, and when Nancy answers pleads to come over and crash, hanging up before he realizes who she is. When he arrives, Nancy tells him Eve is not home. Despite being confused, he welcomes the chance to bathe and eat when she allows him in. She snoops in his suitcase while he bathes, finding memorabilia showing the truth of his stories and travels. As he eats, they talk about Eve, but sensing her loneliness he sweeps her into bed, then asks her to marry him and accompany him to Las Vegas. Nancy laughs, but reveals she does not believe he is crazy. Then she tells him to leave before she goes to work.

Eve calls into Nancy's show, torn between her attraction for Mickey and her fear of making another mistake. Nancy's post-coital euphoria overcomes her normal intellectual approach, and she encourages Eve to give in to, rather than resist, her feelings. When Mickey comes looking for Eve at the bar that night, she is almost ready to let him into her life, when Zack appears and assaults Mickey again. Eve takes off while they are fighting, and at her home she is confronted by Nancy, who tells her everything. Eve is devastated when Nancy proposes that they should "share" Mickey's affection, and she says Nancy can have him, before rushing out.

Mickey returns to Eve's house to recover his suitcase, and Zack finds him there and assaults him again. Mickey prevails, recovering the money and leaving with his suitcase. He tries to catch a ride to the bus station, but spies Eve on the roof of the bar, and races up to see her. She pulls a gun and threatens to kill herself until he does the same; Mickey pulls a gun and promises to shoot himself the very moment Eve tells him to. Eve then breaks down and they embrace. While crying, Eve reveals that she did not actually load her gun with bullets and asks Mickey if it was the same in his case. Mickey says it was, but he has actually begun carrying a loaded gun after the fight with Zack.

Soon Mickey and Eve are on a bus as a couple, en route to Las Vegas, and when a fellow passenger asks if they are gambling, Eve reveals they are about to get married.

Cast

Critical response

The film is reviewed favorably in Pauline Kael's eighth collection of film reviews State of the Art: "The love roundelay Choose Me, written and directed by Alan Rudolph, on a budget of $835,000, is pleasantly bananas. The songs are performed by Teddy Pendergrass and he's just right. The entire movie has a lilting, loose, choreographic flow to it [...] this low-budget comedy-fantasy has some of the most entertaining (and best-sustained) performances I've seen all year."

The film was screened out of competition at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival.[2] Choose Me holds a rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 17 reviews.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Pollock, Dale (December 29, 1984). "Film Company Makes Hit Movies on Mini-Budgets: Island Alive's Hit Movie Formula". Los Angeles Times. p. sd_c1. ISSN 0458-3035.
  2. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Choose Me". Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
  3. ^ "Choose Me". Rotten Tomatoes.
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