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It's Smart as Harper's mom who gets the worst of the Audrey Wells treatment here. The character has been conceived as a sexually frustrated rich bitch, ridiculing her daughters, of whom she's plainly jealous, and verbally castrating any man unlucky enough to cross her path. Smart, who can be sharp, funny and sexy all at the same time, has been directed to play the character as the Pacific Heights version of blowzy. There always seems to be an appraising sneer waiting behind her perfect makeup, and her breasts always seem about to spill out of her shirt. But Wells' criticism of this character shows no sympathy for what's easy to sense behind it -- fear of aging and resentment that she may be losing her sexual attractiveness. She's simply the movie's shrew. (And one, incidentally, whose behavior seems to unwittingly validate Connie's rants against the ruling class, which, when he says it, are presented as evidence of his bull.)

Wells' moviemaking style pits the type of script where each nuance is carefully penciled in against an attempt at a loose, improvisational style. But she's too slick for the former and not disciplined enough to pull off the latter. The movie feels slack, unfocused (though to be fair, she does show some loose-limbed ability in the sequence of Harper's surprise 21st birthday party, and a later scene where all of Connie's "protegees" meet for dinner). And she overdoes everything having to do with Harper's insecurity. In the first scenes, as she makes her way among the guests at her sister's wedding, it took me a while to realize that the character was 20 instead of about 14.

Luckily, Wells has been smart enough to cast Polley, who assays Harper's awkwardness beautifully, although there are plenty of times when you really don't believe that anyone with Polley's swanlike neck and preternatural serenity could ever be awkward. But Polley glides gracefully through the moments Wells has directed her to overdo. She gives a thoroughly winning performance. There's a touching scene when she focuses on the gestures of a fellow bridesmaid at her sister's wedding, trying to mimic the girl's allure, completely blind to her own. Polley's best moments are the ones that are unself-consciously sensual, as when Connie tries to get to see what Harper's like when she's relaxed by telling her to lie down on his couch while doing long division in her head.

It's thanks to Polley's strong presence that the unequal power balance between Harper and Connie comes into view at all. Because, of course, unsure of herself though she is, subject to Connie's quicksilver berating, Harper holds the upper hand. The relationship she calls "my most spectacular and cherished fuck-up" is the one that alerts her to the perils of bathos and bull that artists are prone to; it's the formative experience you know she'll have no trouble moving beyond. This is Polley's first leading role (following her brilliant supporting performance in "The Sweet Hereafter" and wasted appearances in "Go" and "eXistenZ"). The pleasure of watching her is much like Connie's pleasure in watching Harper -- it's the joy of knowing she's got great things ahead of her.
salon.com | Sept. 29, 1999

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