Premiering in the dramatic competition at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, Getting to Know You is director Lisanne Skyler's first narrative feature, following her 1995 Sundance Film Festival documentary No Loans Today. The film takes place in one afternoon at a bus depot where Judith (Welcome to the Dollhouse's Heather Matarazzo) and her brother Wesley wait for the bus. There Judith meets Jimmy (Michael Weston), a kid with a great imagination and nowhere to go. Jimmy tells Judith stories about the lonely people who are sitting at the depot, and his tall tales become flashbacks in the film. As the story progresses, Jimmy and Judith start falling in love and finally reveal the secrets of their own lives: Jimmy's father was a cop who was killed in a simple domestic disturbance call, and Judith lives with her aunt following a spousal argument that put Judith's father in prison and her mother (Bebe Neuwirth) in a mental institution.
by Arthur Borman
synopsis
