Puccini for Beginners (2006)

Here is another chatty, angsty independent film about highly improbable relationship issues and the coincidences that exacerbate them. Frankly, I read the Wikipedia summary after seeing this movie because following the threads almost made my eyebrows hurt, and I just do not care for the characters that much. (I have never seen the male lead before but he is a dead ringer for another wooden actor in independent films, so he starts with a severe handicap.) The lead character, Allegra (not to be confused with the allergy medication), sabotages her relationships, which she begins at the drop of a hat. She claims to be a lesbian but just as readily becomes intimate with a man as a woman. (She is either bisexual but does not know it, or the scriptwriter is ignorant and unimaginative. You decide.) Still, it is the coincidences that really stretch credulity: In the space of 24 hours, and then a week, how does a dumped lesbian meet and then start a relationship with both a man and a woman -- who are involved with each other? How does a woman serve at a reception she does not know is for her ex and her fiancee? How does the dumped lesbian get back with her ex, after her ex has dumped her fiancee? The women in this film carry their roles quite well -- esp. the tall, coldly analytical lesbian -- so the scriptwriter has done fairly well with creating characters. It is just the plot that is weak. Enjoy! 3 stars. (8-16-2017)