Joe's So Mean to Josephine (1996)

I actually knew Peter Wellington while he was working on the script, and proof read it for him and gave him as much feedback as I could on the Joe character, who I the narcissus that I am, believe is loosely based on me.I was quite the macho ass-hole back then and somewhat of a bad boy.My girlfriend at the time was somewhat like Josephine. But once again I'm flattering myself. I have a very bad temper that I'm still trying to get a grip on and Peter had seen me lose it one night and was more than amazed. I really helped him out a lot in regards to how Joe, who is less than a happy camper would lose his temper.Peter is an extremely intelligent, insightful, funny, and highly creative individual with great talent and I am extremely proud to have had the pleasure to get to know him as well as I did that wonderfully strange summer in downtown Montreal.I deeply and sincerely wish him all the best in all of his future endeavors whatever they may be.

I can't think of a better written story about the problems, jealousies, insecurities that arise between couples in difficult, conflicting relationships that are based less on love than need. The dynamics between Joe and Josephine change halfway through and the pathetic behavior of Josephine suddenly changes as her career takes off the Joe's career criminal life takes a nose dive as he realizes that his life is going nowhere. The resolution is both maddening, dramatic and touching. The two lead performers are great.

Love the title and loved the film; a tiny perfect movie. It felt like I was watching home video, carefully edited into a realistic story; Sarah Polley and Eric Thal were Josephine and Joe, perfectly recognizable as people I know. And, I agree with Sarah that I can hardly believe the screenplay was written by a man. Josephine fared much better as a character and the end was beautiful -- seemingly abrupt, left to the viewer, enough of a surprise but well foreshadowed by the rest of the movie. Surely this will strike a chord of recognition in everyone who sees it. If not, you haven't been paying attention.

You feel sorry for the two leads in this film, and it has nothing to do with their respective characters. No, you sympathize with Sarah Polley ("The Sweet Hereafter") and Eric Thal because they both try so hard to make the most of poorly-written roles. Josephine is a college student and aspiring journalist. Joe is a wiretapper masquerading as a phone company technician. They meet in a bar. She's intrigued and pursues Joe, but Joe plays it cool. They finally get together, have a night of bland sex (bland to the viewer, anyway) and begin a complicated relationship. She finds out about his secret occupation, and continues to date him. He has no people skills whatsoever, and embarrasses Josephine in front of her friends. She continues to date him. It's not until much later in the film that she comes to her senses and realizes what a jerk Joe is. It's a variation of Roger Ebert's idiot plot. The story continues only because both characters are too stupid to realize they're hopelessly wrong for each other. "Joe's So Mean to Josephine" wastes the talents of Polley and Thal. On the bright side, it was nice to see the city of Toronto actually playing itself this time, instead of pretending to be New York or Chicago.