Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000)

A look at the lives of several different women in five separate stories. Writer-director Rodrigo García isn't indifferent to the characters he's depicting--one can sense that he wants to dig to the very core of a woman's emotional being with these portraits--but his chapters are handled oddly, in clinical fashion. Garcia also fails show off his star-actresses to their full advantages, particularly in the cases of Calista Flockhart and Holly Hunter--both weakly used. Of the group, Cameron Diaz is the most surprising, delivering a focused, balanced portrayal of a blind woman (her crying scene, shot in close-up, is quite stunning); however, these ladies aren't the living, breathing, suffering people they're meant to be. This unreleased theatrical feature, facile though it may be, was certainly a step forward in showcasing great femme talent, but the end result is a mixed-bag. ** from ****

This was okay, I can't fault any of the performances and the 5 (loosely) interconnected stories are well written, imaginative (in a creative writing type way) and interesting however it still failed to grab me on any level or leave a lasting impression.The vignettes all deal with dramatic developments in the lives of a diverse group of women, most of whom are lonely and or unhappy. All the performances are fantastic and at times raw opening with Glenn Close as a doctor looking after her invalid mother, Holly Hunter as a bank manager dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and an observant street woman, Kathy Baker as a single mother debating a romance with a new neighbour, Calista Flockhart is a tarot reader whose girlfriend is dying of cancer and police detective Amy Brenneman examines her loneliness when her blind sister Cameron Diaz begins dating.There are some beautifully shot scenes here especially the outdoor ones although I was distracted by the random black cloudiness that appeared at the top of the screen from time to time. Like most people I thought there was something wrong with my copy of the movie. Not sure what that was supposed to signify.I also think this could have benefited from more of an arc tying all the stories together (like the suicide woman) as it was I failed to see any connection. 5/31/15

While the film tells some more or less interesting stories about some more or less interesting people, it fails to capture its audience. Despite the cast of excellent actresses and the good performances, the viewer remains at a distance and you cannot help feeling like the scientist who views a bunch of ants under the looking glass...In addition, the Director, who also wrote the script, does not develop an interesting visual style for the film - it seems as if the dialog and the performances were enough in the Director's view to make a good movie - well, they are not. I have seen this as a German DVD edition and I'm not sure whether the transfer was very bad or whether the film was intended to look the way it did - quite often the top part of the frame is darker than the rest, usually in a way so that the actors' faces are lit normally, while the background fades away horizontally (not vertically, though). Quite irritating, in my view.Overall, stays well behind its potential. (3/10)

...with the other user. On the contrary, I find Things You Can Tell... to be a very intense drama. Even I, being male, could easily identify with all the characters. The title says it all, you know what these characters feel and think just by looking at them, and it's done in a very subtle and under-acted way. I must agree, though, that I, too, was surprised by Cameron Díaz; I knew all the other actresses to be first rate, but up until this movie, I'd always thought of Díaz as a dumb blonde; I'm glad she proved me wrong. I know a lot of Americans (and I'm NOT saying ALL) want big emotions, larger-than-life drama, and a lot of FX...but life isn't that way, life is like this movie: funny, touching, sad, lonely, full of love and, yes, even repressed. 10/10