“I’d try to comprehend you but I got a dyslexic heart…”

Singles, Cameron Crowe’s 1992 tale of the twentysomething search for love in Seattle, is one of my all-time favourite films. This sweet, episodic mix of neatly interlinking storylines is very human, very funny and has probably the best soundtrack of any film in that decade (yes, that includes Pulp Fiction).

“How did this stuff get so complicated? I don’t know.”

The storyline strands are relatively few, and this is why the film continues to be coherent and believable. Poor Linda has been dumped on more times than she cares to remember, so is in no mood to meet Steve, who might just be the love of her life. Steve’s ex Janet is, meanwhile, in love with her neighbour in the block of “singles” in which they live, but Cliff is just too wrapped up in his music to give a damn. Meanwhile, across the courtyard Debbie has decided that the best way to go for love is to run it down… preferably with a bicycle…

Linda KYRA SEDGWICK
Steve CAMPBELL SCOTT
Cliff MATT DILLON
Janet BRIDGET FONDA
Debbie SHEILA KELLEY

Written and Directed by CAMERON CROWE (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous)

Music by PAUL WESTERBERG

Oh, and watch out for a cameo from Eric Stoltz, who has been promised a part, no matter how small, in every single Cameron Crowe film…

“Spam!”

The beauty of this little gem of a film is in its simplicity; for a story with interlinking plots it is kept very uncomplicated, with only three or four basic storylines and the connection between the characters for the most part the fact that they live in the same building, so there are no ridiculous coincidences. The characters are a mass of bad habits, neurosis and likeable humanity… sometimes you like ‘em, sometimes you don’t, so that, like family, you maintain an enormous fondness for them and all their foibles. And the acting in each case is so pitch perfect that its warmth and humour comes spilling out.

“You’re a realist-slash-dreamer.”

Take Steve. Campbell Scott (son of George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst, for collectors of trivia) is the perfect choice for the truly lovely (and persistent) Steve, drowning himself in work to try and recover from some terrible romantic choices, but nevertheless ready to take the chance to build his future. Scott has a look and manner that is gentle sweetness over elusive darkness, which gives him an unmistakeable depth; this is necessary because the relationship between Steve and Linda is the most true and the most fraught with passion and tragedy and potential of all of them. Kyra Sedgwick I found annoying as Linda the first time around, but her cutesome bitty defensiveness grew on me as I grew up with the film. Remember I was 12 when I first saw it (sitting on a broken seat at the cinema!) and it’s like an old friend now, new things becoming clear with each viewing.

“I think a lot of people might think it’s about ‘My name is Dick, you can touch me’… but I think it can be seen either way.”

Most hilarious performance has to go to Matt Dillon, whose sleepy Seattle stereotype is trying to launch his band, Citizen Dick, along with drummer Eddie Vedder (who has a lovely moment with a bee documentary…) but who sadly hasn’t spotted the weak link in their performances: his lack of talent. His good-natured drawling buffoonery is just this side of farce, and is neatly balanced by the down-to-earth sweetness of Bridget Fonda’s Janet, a woman who is, despite her intelligence and independence in all other areas of her life, deranged by love. Her scenes alongside Bill Pullman in his cameo as the world’s cutest plastic surgeon are particularly touching.
Coming back to humour, Sheila Kelley, too, is pleasantly "plastic" and has the most outstandingly appalling earring collection I could ever imagine outside Pat Butchers jewellery box...

“I am very, very, very lonely.”

Of course, it’s not just the actors that star in this film. The script itself is the star of the show. There’s nothing groundbreaking about it: we’ve had friends giving bad advice before, we’ve had amusing wrong numbers and farcical stupidity. But for once it is all handled with gentle, grown-up affection, with very human emotion and the kind of half-conversations that you have when you don’t say what you should have said. Only this time, we DO get the other side of the conversation. Sometimes it’s in thought voice-overs, or occasionally in quiet monologues to camera, which, rather than being irksomely Ally McBeal are honest and friendly. This Cameron Crowe was not yet the Cameron Crowe of Jerry Maguire, and he knew how to wring out the sentiment without drowning in it. Mostly this is because there are a lot of genuinely hilarious moments, not least of all a montage of dating agency videos from the diversely desperate and the sex scene which mines the inner thoughts for its humour. But even the most obvious fun-poking is done with clever, self-deprecating grace. The point is, that we are all looking for some sort of romantic fulfilment, and we have to laugh at ourselves while we’re doing it.

“He is only, like, the next Martin Scorcees.”

The direction of this film roots it firmly in its era. Crowe edits it into titled segments, each with their own image (including repeated shots of the “Kiss by the Hotel de Ville” photograph which sums up the spirit of the film and even an image from one of my favourite artists, Edward Hopper) so that the episodic structure, far from being irritating, is embraced. The film is full of lovingly constructed, lingering, funny, beautiful shots, which support the feeling I sometimes have with this film which is that I’m reading a gorgeously illustrated novella… though maybe that’s just me! The dense scarlet-hued club scenes are particularly effective, as are the blue-washed title screens and the symbolic shots: a desk disintegrating along with the user’s career. And there’s no shying away from repeated, circular symbols, from broken plates to garage door openers to saying “bless you” when someone sneezes.

“I was just, er, nowhere near your neighbourhood.”

The final piece to the Singles puzzle has to be the music. The film is a hymn to grunge era Seattle and it doesn’t spare the cameos: Eddie Vedder, Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, Alice In Chains performing sets in the club. Crowe doesn’t overuse the inclusion of his great love, but he doesn’t waste an opportunity to slip in the perfect song, topping and tailing the film with songs by Paul Westerberg, dropping in a whole range of tunes in between: Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden… (but also Hendrix and Muddy Waters). One of the dating agency men stands before a Sub Pop label poster, with “Mudhoney” (who perform Citizen Dick’s trademark tune, “Touch Me (I’m Dick)”) emblazoned on the wall behind him… It’s not just the music itself but the whole culture of it that seeps into your mind watching this film. Some films are dated, some merely nostalgically, pleasantly representative of their time, this is one of the latter.

“You… belong… with…. ME!”

Coming away from Singles I hope you’ll feel, like I do every time, that you’ve seen a charming, touching, human film, laughed a lot, cried a bit, and recognised something of yourself in every one of them. It’s not often you come across a film where the different characters are unique and yet not stereotypes (except perhaps Cliff, and that strikes me as deliberate) and the interlinking is incidental rather than the main focus of the story. Paradoxically, the fluency is helped rather than hindered by the divisions in the film, because you feel like you’re tackling one emotional hurdle after another rather than trying to track a hundred storylines at once. This is not some sort of groundbreaking film that will challenge your ideas about cinema, or change your life. It’s just a film about individual stories buried in universal experience (and if nothing else the ending makes this crystal clear). Ultimately, Singles is just a comfortable old slipper of a movie that will never wear out.

“Does everybody go through this?”
“Nah, I think it’s just us.”

Technical details:

Running time: 95 minutes
Certificate 15 for mild nudity, a sex scene, some strong language.

Thanks for reading.

Alex
xxx