No Saving This So-Called Screenplay

Seldom does a film with a solid premise misfire completely. Even more seldom does one begin with a substantial story, veer completely away from it, and then subsequently turn into a disaster. Unfortunately, I Love You, I Love You Not becomes just such a debacle that not only confuses but also angers its audience.

Daisy (Claire Danes) is a self-conscious teen who attends a pretentious Manhattan private school and spends most of her time reading and day-dreaming. When she goes upstate to visit her beloved Nana (Jeanne Moreau), she immediately relaxes, talking endlessly about her crush on Ethan Wells (Jude Law), the popular and egoistic class jock. Afterwards, when Daisy reads a lustful love poem aloud in class, Ethan immediately recognizes to whom the composition is addressed. He, of course, pursues her and they soon become a couple. But when she confides to Ethan that her Nana is a Holocaust survivor, he suddenly becomes aloof. Daisy's "emotional journey" begins as she searches for a true sense of her identity.

The possibility of a modern drama framed by Holocaust themes is a promising one. This film, however, begins shooting blanks right from the start.

First and foremost, there is the crisis of the script. Wendy Kesselman's screenplay (adapted from her own stage play) is remarkably schizophrenic, jumping from one storyline to the next with absolutely no transitions. At times, the absence of any logical bridge between scenes causes one to wonder whether a better movie was left on the cutting room floor.

There are also a number of egregious flaws in the portrayal of the characters. Ethan exudes arrogance from the outset: there is simply nothing likeable about his constant bragging and self-flattery. At one point, he even comments to a befuddled Daisy, "I know you like me." Apart from adhering to the scripted cliches, Jude Law imbues the character with nothing but conceit.

Danes tries harder than Law, but still finds it impossible to make Daisy a plausible or engaging character. She bats her eyelashes, makes out with her bedroom mirror (no kidding) and even faints in an attempt to gain Ethan's attention, finally attracting his notice by a contrived and blatant flaunting of her sexuality. The implication, of course, is that Daisy serves as another girl for Ethan's score card. As a result, it becomes painful to observe the developing relationship. Indeed, Daisy's infatuation with such a narcissist has a downright misogynistic undertone.

Danes, meanwhile, is inconceivably wrapped up in the film's mock-seriousness. At one point after Daisy's mother tells her to get rid of all her excess books, she shrieks, "But mom, books are life!" The remark, like many other such lines, invariably provokes laughter. No matter how much expression Danes infuses into each of her inane sentences, her efforts to add complexity to Daisy's underwritten character are hopeless and inescapably pathetic.

There is no doubt that Danes is a gifted actress--she's at her best when unburdened by the awful lines, relying rather on her amazingly expressive face to convey emotional subtlety. These moments are rare, however, and Daisy eventually becomes less a heroine than a mere whining annoyance. The film attempts to make an implicit comparison between Daisy and Anne Frank. The mere suggestion of a resemblance between Daisy's soap operas and Anne Frank's ordeal is nothing short of shameful.

Moreau provides the only spark of genuine emotion in the film. Through her recollections of the Holocaust, she brings to life a rich and deeply introspective character who, in building her relationship with Daisy, overcomes her own fears in order to help relieve her granddaughter's. Though too many of her lines sink into platitudes, Moreau's Nana is the only character who seems to be really evolving throughout the film. Ultimately, she is the only one who finds anything resembling fulfillment.

Danes filmed I Love You, I Love You Not before last year's Romeo and Juliet. One wonders whether she would choose to do this film now. It is clear that she wants to make movies that are original and artistically diverse. After playing a trashy westerner in U-Turn she's due to star as an abused wife in the upcoming The Rainmaker and will appear as Cosette in Les Miserables this spring. Though it is understandable that someone as young as Danes might mistake originality for quality, her performance, sadly, can't possibly rise above a script as dismal as that of I Love You, I Love You Not.

In short, it's almost as if we're watching Danes's audition tapes before she became the accomplished actress we know today. Her performance (and the movie as a whole) is like a ghost from her past. Only in the past, her name was Angela Chase--and we enjoyed her emotional journey so much more.