Girl Walks Into a Bar (2011)

I was really looking forward to watching this movie as the cast was in my opinion just filled with many of those near "A" star type actors that just really never get the credit that they so long deserve. One of my favourite under rated actors is Robert Forster and he did not disappoint me in his role as a guy named Dodge. Dodge first appears half way in to the film and he is the father of a son and a daughter. His son is a grifter named Henry played by Aaron Tveit, and his daughter is a stripper named Teresa played by Emmanuelle Chriqui. It would appear that Henry has learned his trade as a Grifter, from his dad Dodge, and his sister Teresa is not too fond of how their daddy has earned his living.Carla Gugino is the main star of the film and the only constant character throughout the film. She plays a private eye named Francine Driver who is working undercover as a purported hit lady who is hired by a dentist named Nick played by Zachary Quinto to kill his wife. Unfortunately for Francine after successfully capturing on tape a clear confession by Nick the dentist to kill his wife, Francine runs in to the handsome young grifter named Henry played by Aaron Tveit who picks her purse. Henry steals Francine's wallet and the video recording of the dentist's confession that he wants his wife murdered and is willing to pay $20K for the (phony) hit lady to complete the job.So the story line does sound interesting doesn't it? Unfortunately as Francine is seen travelling from bar to bar in search of the grifter Henry who stole her tape recording we are subjected to far too much irrelevant rhetoric from a cast of characters that just went on about nothing. This is where I felt the movie had lost me, and although adding bona fide actors like Rosario Dawson and Gil Bellows should have made the film more intriguing, I felt the film went flat.I was hoping for more of an entertaining story as the entire film takes place in a series of bars with characters that somehow intertwine. When you have stars such as Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett, Xander Berkeley, Zachary Quinto, Carla Gugino, Gil Bellows, and Rosario Dawson, a viewer just expects more from the movie. As an example, I cannot say enough about the fine film Dinner Rush which starred Danny Aiello, and also took place entirely in a restaurant bar. Now Dinner Rush was just an awesome film which I am sure to watch again. As for A Girl Walks In To A Bar, the title is a misnomer, since the girl in question Francine Driver, walks in to a number of bars and I walked out of the film being very much short changed. I gave it a 4 out of 10 rating and that is based on two strong performances by Robert Forster and Carla Gugino, otherwise my rating would have been lower.

A compelling and agreeable multi-story ensemble dramedy from writer/director Sebastián Gutiérrez, who has made several of these anthology format films. I'm particularly fond of these kinds of ensemble films and while there remain some acceptably unresolved loose ends by the time GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR is over, it's a very intriguing and entertaining movie. While its storyline is pretty thin, I felt it maintained interest through an effective Tarantino-esque intersection of characters and plenty of engaging dialog and an abundance of stimulating eye candy. Its focus is on character confrontation and interaction rather than the unveiling of the beginning, middle, and ending of a storyline, although it's a few of its story lines converge and resolve intriguingly. One segment shifts into voice-over narration by one of the characters; another segment suddenly shifts into another character's internal monologue, but I felt Gutiérrez handled these transitions effectively and they never seemed jarring; going with the flow of the film and its occasional style transitions, there is much to be absorbed out of this movie. For an independent film, Gutiérrez has attracted a notable A-list cast, including Carla Gugino (she happens to by Gutiérrez's wife, and has starred in about a dozen of his films), Danny Devito, Rosario Dawson, Josh Hartnett, Robert Forster, and Zachary Quinto, whose diverse stories intertwine and pass in the night as the characters interact between ten different L.A. bars during the course of one evening. Singer/songwriter Grant Lee Phillips supplies a folk-rock based soundtrack and has a brief role as a bar singer, performing a likeably cynical song written with Gutiérrez, called "Only Bad Can Come," that fits nicely into the mixture of story lines being conveyed. The film was the first feature film to be made specifically for internet distribution, although fortunately it's made its way onto DVD for non-streaming watchability.

"Girl Walks Into a Bar" is, at once, both better and worse than it was marketed as: A witty comedy with a cast of strangers in inter-locking stories. It's the inter-locking stories part that gets disconcerting. That generally means we get too many loosely-related stories with too many characters that we barely get to know with meaningless plot lines that don't go anywhere. This movie isn't that, it's mostly better.There are only two story lines, born from each other, with arguably two or three main characters. And the beginning totally gets us invested in them. Nick (Zachary Quinto) is sitting nervously at a bar and doesn't want anyone to join him because he's waiting for someone. Francine (Carla Gugino) is that someone; he just doesn't know that. Minutes later we suddenly have no one left to sympathize with when it is revealed that Nick is about to commit an unforgivable crime and Francine gives no concern to the lies she just said.Henry (Aaron Tveit) walks into a bar and steals our attention back. He flirts with Francine and just for the fun of it, and steals her wallet. Our two story lines involve Nick on his mission of crime and the law enforcement on his tail while Francine is on the tail of Henry. Their night of adventure involves checking into a number of bars each with another person to meet. The cast list is quite the collection of talented, mostly recognizable names, but they have nothing to do. Sometimes they say things that are supposed to be clever but are not.That's where the film is worse. The dialogue is not witty nor funny, and it should not be classified as a comedy. There were quite a few scenes which had actors saying crap that none of their characters should have said and which added no meaning or value to the film.Then the movie ended with some kind of choreographed musical and dance number which didn't conclude anything. Almost unbeknownst to me, Nick's storyline was wrapped up in a previous scene (Josh Hartnett's only scene) but with one short, stupid phone call. Quinto can act, as can Hartnett, and a well written scene with confrontation was desperately needed. After the first two scenes, there was very little confrontation, and indeed revealed that you weren't watching much at all. "Girl Walks Into a Bar" seems visually interesting, with compelling lead characters, good acting and clever story lines but then doesn't really go anywhere.

Plot: Francine Driver (Carla Gugino) is an undercover cop whom, posing as an assassin meets with a potential client, Nick (Zachary Quinto), in a Los Angeles bar late one night. After mild ambivalence, Nick confesses to her that he wishes his wife dead. She agrees to the arrangement if she is met with twenty thousand dollars. Nick admits he does not have the money on him currently, but promises by the end of the night he will. After his eventual departure, Francine is acquainted with a young man, Henry (Aaron Tveit), whom after certain particular charms, steals her wallet, leaving her there in the bar alone as he leaves unnoticed. Francine's wallet contains the recorded evidence that will incriminate Nick and put him behind bars.It is then that Francine's night truly begins as she attempts to hunt down Henry and locate her missing wallet. Her search takes her through a series of local bars in Los Angeles and not one is without an introduced character whom in some fashion, as part of the ensemble cast, is connected to another character throughout—aforementioned or no. Each character as well has their own, unique, story to tell and of course, life in which they live.Part of a Whole: While it cannot be argued that Francine is essentially the film's catalyst guised as a major character, she does in all actuality, share almost equivalent time on screen with the rest of the cast (Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett, Zachary Quinto, Aaron Tveit, Rosario Dawson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Robert Forster, etcetera). As Francine's night unfolds the viewer discovers the life of each individual is linked to that of another and not one is any more or less relevant than the other.However, not each character is entirely interesting. In fact, each is nearly forgettable. The performances themselves however are well-rounded, though again, nothing too spectacular. Gugino and Quinto hold the most notoriety here.Pen and no Sword: Writer and director Sebastian Gutierrez has a script here that is void of any real climatics or action in any degree. Instead the film is progressed through exchanges of dialogue encompassing a colorful variety of topics. These passings are often sharp, quick, full of wit, and allegedly carry some purpose or message.While the lines are delivered with expertly dry candor, the point of these encounters isn't quite explained with any real clarity. There are exceptions in which such story-telling is acceptable, and most often successful, but here these characters are faulted, one by one, from their enigmatic origins. Nor is it with any great care that these characters either individually or together develop. So separate from compassion is the viewer that he or she is merely a spectator to the lives of these individuals rather than a partaking guest.That said, the dialogue is as fun as one might expect from a film so heavily cast in it. There are as well, sequences which are as memorable as they are well-directed. Again, this is perhaps, alone, ten to twenty minutes of this hour and twenty minute feature.Hope for the Little Guy – A Picture in 7D: It is immediately apparent that the film is shot on a SLR camera and this is undoubtedly the most admirable, if not hopeful, aspect of the film itself. Shot for the purpose of free distribution via internet streaming service, YouTube, the use of Canon's 7D SLR camera is a light for all aspiring filmmakers no matter the level of education received or field of preference.Girl Walks Into A Bar has an abundance of Hollywood names attached to its likeness all standing under the lovely iridescence of bar-light, affront a piece of equipment any hard working artist can so willingly afford. One's own fantasy of shooting a feature film with the prominent actors of Hollywood, on say one's very own T2i, appears all the more livable.The cinematography is an agreeable mix of color and perspective angles. It as well displays with triumphant circulation the power of SLR cameras and too their endless capability.One Sentence Summary: Shot on Canon's 7D over the course of an eleven day period, the sharp witted Girl Walks Into A Bar is by no standards consistent with an amateur production and while it certainly gives hope to young, penniless, filmmakers, it does suffer from lack of a purposeful identity.