(1999) 1.5 Brian J. Dillard On their previous collaboration -- the first few episodes of the hip, late-'90s BBC drama This Life -- writer Amy Jenkins and director Sam Miller managed to inject quick wit, warts-and-all realism, and low-key charm into the twentysomething soap opera formula popularized on every show from MTV's The Real World to Melrose Place and Friends. Unfortunately, the duo's first feature-film team-up bypasses This Life's tight plots, involving characters and razor-sharp dialogue. The result is a cursory, formless exercise in hollow urban chic. Elephant Juice's biggest problem is its non-linear editing, which tries to establish emotional resonance but succeeds only in confusing an already meandering plot. A close second and third are the casting and the characterizations. It's hard to know whether Kimberly Williams (Father of the Bride) stinks here because she's a bad actress or simply because her tantric sex-loving, single-mom character is so poorly sketched out and saddled with such utterly inane dialogue. By Elephant Juice's 1999 release date, cappuccino humor was about as au courant as Seattle grunge, but that's only the most egregious example of the script's many deeply unfunny jokes. The dramatic denouements aren't any more effective. Jenkins and Miller haven't developed the cinematic talent for getting us quickly and completely involved in their ensemble of characters. Therefore, when we find out, for example, that Mr. X and Ms. Y have been carrying on a torrid affair behind their friends' backs, it's like overhearing gossip about people we barely know and don't really like. It would be nice if at least Daniela Nardini, whose acid-tongued Anna was the emotional center of This Life, redeemed her scant screen time with an indelible performance; instead, her Daphne is just an over-the-top caricature of Anna, with all of the venom but none of the vulnerability. A late-'90s descendent of St. Elmo's Fire, Elephant Juice is a screaming endorsement for a permanent ban on coming-of-age dramas that mistake glibness for insight.

Elephant Juice on AllMovie

Elephant Juice (1999)

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Adult Humor
Sexual Situations

genres

Comedy Drama

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category

Feature

directed by

Sam Miller

countries

UK, USA

released

1999

run time

86 min.

produced by

Film Four International, HAL Films, Miramax

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by Mark Deming synopsis

Four young couples attempt to navigate the twists and turns of modern romance in this romantic comedy drama. As Jules (Emmanuelle Beart) and Will (Daniel Lapaine) are toasted by their friends on announcing their engagement, the happy couple and six of their close acquaintances are trying to sort out their troubles with relationships. Jules is a successful businesswoman who is devoted to Will, but Will has no talent for fidelity and sees a certain prostitute on a regular basis. Billy (Sean Gallagher), a good friend of Will's, is a research scientist who is shy around women; when he finally does meet a woman who is interested in him, it turns out to be Dodie (Kimberly Williams), a single mother from America who espouses the virtues of tantric sex. Frank (Mark Strong) is an analyst in love with Daphne (Daniela Nardini), who loves making him mad. And George (Lee Williams) is a model whose relationship with Graham (Lennie James) is put to the test when George becomes a success and Graham has trouble dealing with his lover's new fame. Elephant Juice was written by Amy Jenkins and directed by Sam Miller, who previously worked together on the successful British TV series This Life.