It is an early 1990s Cameron Crowe movie, and a charming and quirky one at that too. Given Crowe's poor responses with his latest movies, I would have to say that this one isn't a bad movie at all, especially for someone watching it years later in 2006. In fact, I would go to the extent that I actually enjoyed it!

I am not sure if Crowe was one of the pioneers in these styles of movie-making, but Singles sure is one of the earliest movies that I've seen that has made use of things like chapters, narratives in front of the camera and a montage of love stories involving different people who in fact know one another. And it's all done in a seamless manner.

Basically, it revolves around 2 main couples - Kyra Sedgwick as Linda and Campbell Scott as Steve, and Bridget Fonda as Janet and Matt Dillon as Cliff. However, there are other supporting characters which nevertheless adds much colour and life to the movie.

Couple 1: Linda and Steve

Both Linda and Steve had been hurt in the game of love, and had decided that they wanted to steer clear of relationships for the months to come. However, as fate would have it, they met and quickly fell in love. However, due to the previous bad experience with relationships, each became very unsure of the next step to take, hence leading to a few misunderstandings. These misunderstandings soon cleared, and they became a blissful couple, until one day Linda became pregnant. Not that Steve wanted out. In fact, they talked about marriage and raising the child together. Unfortunately, Steve and Linda met with a traffic accident, which led to a miscarriage. After that incident, Linda realized that she desperately needed a breather, and decided to follow her organization's Alaskan field trip.

So a month later, she returned. However, when Steve and Linda finally met, they found the air around them full of tension and awakardness. They broke up subsequently, though it soon became clear that they still loved each other deeply.

Couple 2: Janet and Cliff

Janet, who used to date Steve and lived in the same block as Steve, fell in love with an underground rocker who moved in the neighbourhood. However, Janet seemed to love Cliff more than did Cliff love her. Despite that fact that Cliff himself admitted to Janet that he was still seeing other girls, Janet chose to turn a blind eye to it and continued to live in bliss. However, it wasn't long before she sensed that Cliff was not as passionate towards her than he was towards his band (which was losing its popularity).

In a talk with Steve, Steve cautioned her that Cliff wasn't the type who would be attracted to girls like her, but rather to "night-club style, Amazon-type women". A slighty distraught Janet asked Cliff if her breasts were too small for him, and Cliff frankly admitted that, "sometimes". Hence, the irrepressible Janet decided to get some breasts implants. However, a talk with the plastic surgeon (guest appearance by Bill Pullman) led her to make the decision to just be herself, to pursue her own dreams and to give Cliff up.

Of course, as fate would have it, Cliff realized how much he had taken Janet for granted, and embarked on a mission to woo her back.

What I liked about the movie

The quirky and even funny dialogue and situations were probably the best things about this movie. Here are some samples....

(Janet is consoling Steve who was love-sick over his break-up with Linda)

Janet: People need people, Steve. It has nothing to do with sex. OK, maybe 40 percent. 60 percent. Forget it.



(Janet had earlier confessed to Steve that what she wanted in a guy was something that was as simple as him saying "bless you" when she sneezed)

Janet: [fakes a sneeze to get Cliff to say,"Bless you."]
Cliff: [Watching nature show on bees, has no response]
Janet: [fakes a louder sneeze]
Cliff: [indifferently hands her a box of tissues] Hey, Babe? Don't get me sick. I'm playin' this weekend.



(Towards the end when Cliff was trying to woo Janet back, he goes into a lift with her and comments on her hat. Janet politely thanked him, then sneezes.)

Cliff: (in a nonchalent manner) Bless you.

(Janet looks at Cliff wide-eyed)



(Janet has decided to go ahead with the breast agumentation and is excited about it. She decides to call Cliff and play coy towards him on the phone)

Janet: Hi! It's me. I'm tired of doing the right thing, I...I'm tired of waiting for you to call me. Um... I'm on the bed right now, wearing something really outrageous. I've got no underwear on... (exhales deeply) I need to be touched. I'm burning for you, Cliff.

Annonymous sloppy fat guy on the other line: I think you got the wrong number lady but I'll be right over.

(Steve and Linda are facing the possibility that Linda may be pregnant. Hence, Steve goes out to buy different pregnancy test kits. He is paying at the cash counter when he realizes that the cashier, Doug, (a cameo by Jeremy Piven) was an ex-classmate who used to idolize Steve in his DJing days in college)

Doug: You know what? We're throwing down tonight over on Aloha Street! Yeah! We're gonna have three bands; it's gonna' be insane! Would you... would you get up and do a little "Wheels of Steel" for us?
Steve: Oh, no, no...
Doug: You sure? You're the only man I know who could mix Elvis Costello and Public Enemy! [singing] What's so funny about... peace, peace, peace... love and under... peace, peace. / Death Row, what does a brother know? peace, peace. / Yow, wow, wow, wow, wow, kapow! You're the King, man, you are the King!
Doug: You've *gotta* be there, man, you *must* be there!
(holds up one pregnancy test kit to scan, notices the kit and pauses)
Doug: (with a serious face) Of course, you may be busy.



(In Steve's introductory monologue...)

Steve: I broke up with someone recently: Jennifer, my last girlfriend. I did it in a crowded restaurant. She just stared at me with that look: How can you pass me up? I told her we weren't right and all the stuff we both knew. A week later I realized I was wrong, tried to get back together with her. She won't see me. Now she's with Tony. Tony knows my friend Bailey, who's friends with the girl Tony's going out with on the side, Rita. Rita who I broke up with to go out with Jennifer. So now do I tell Jennifer that I know Tony's going out with Rita or do I tell Rita that I know about Tony and Jennifer? Tony will tell Jennifer that I was still going out with Rita while I was going out with her. How does stuff get so complicated? I don't know.



(Steve realized that he never wanted to break-up with Linda. While in a noisy night club, he locks himself in a public phone cubicle and pours out his heartfelt confession to Linda - though it was only her answering machine, amidst the commotion of angry customers who banged on the door and shouted for him to get out cos they needed to use the toilet urgently.)

Steve: Linda, uh, it's me. I had to call you. It's about midnight. I was just having many beers. And, uh, I just wanted to say what I should have said at the dock. I f*cking chickened out when I acted casual, like Mr. Casual. I should have said it. You! Belong! With! Me! We belong together. And what really pisses me off is that, now that we're really talking, you thought i proposed to you only because you were pregnant. What's that about! I mean...

Angry customer: I gotta pee. I gotta pee. I gotta pee.

Steve: (to the people banging on the door) *Hey, this is not the bathroom!*

Steve: (continues to Linda's ansering machine) And you know maybe if I had said some of these things at the dock it would have made a difference because, but I think we made a big mistake because, we had good times and we had bad times, but we had times. And I would like to start over. I would like to be new to you. I want to be new to you. I want to be Mr. New. So call me back if you want to. But this is the last time I'll call. And, if you really needed to know how I feel, how I really feel, that's how I feel. I love you. And that's something you should know, so I won't bother you again. So, good night. And good bye. And call me back. Good bye.

Worst thing about this part was that.... Linda's answering machine broke down and damaged the tape which the confession was recorded on!!! Argh!!!!




(After spending a memorable evening together chatting about their lives and love for the same singers, Steve went all the way to Linda's place to see her again)

Steve: (after Linda opens the door) I was *nowhere near* your neighbourhood.

So really....

The basic storyline of both main couples was really simple. However, it was filled with moments, coupled with witty dialogue, real but amusing situations and really good acting by all the leads. In short, the timelessness of the issues, the basic human emotions, and all in all the way it was all portrayed really gave this movie its special touch. Kudos to scriptwriter and director Cameron Crowe for such an impressive piece of work (I never thought I would ever say this about Crowe!). It's really hard for me to describe just what made it special. You'll have to watch it for yourself to find out.

And as I said, the acting was one aspect that took the movie to higher levels. I mean, how many commercial movies out there can boast to feature this number of young actors and actresses with solid acting skills? I loved Bridget Fonda's perky personality, Campbell Scott's earnest ways, Kyra Sedgwick's vulnerability and Cliff's unassuming rocker-persona.

Even supporting characters added much amusement alongside the main stories. For example, Shiela Kelley's character's foray into video dating (directed by the "next Martin Scorcese", played by Tim Burton in a cameo) got me in stitches, and her enounter with a 'single guy' on a first class flight was highly amusing as well. I laughed out loud at all her potential video dates as well with all their grandious self-presentations.

The verdict?

In all, it was simply the moments. They are not laugh-out-loud funny, nor are they tear-jerking. However, it was the realism of the emotions paired with highly plausible situations in real-life that made this a memorable movie.

It's been a long while since I've seen a movie which made me wanna watch it again and again. This is one of them.

Interesting observation

If you get your hands on the DVD, do take time to look at the Special Features which features two 'outtakes'. I though they were like 'NG' scenes, which what 'outtakes' usually mean to be. Turns out they were 2 deleted scenes which I felt were too good to have been edited out.

Take a look at what they were about here.

Interesting trivia 1

Just some of the big names who had cameo roles in this movie:

Tim Burton as the video director who directed Kelley's dating video.
Eric Stoltz as the mime who dispenses warped views on love.
Jeremy Piven as the overzealous cashier

Bill Pullman as Dr Jamison, the plastic surgeon who talks Janet out of the breast augmentation
Cameron Crowe as a reporter who interviewed Cliff
Members of Pearl Jam as Cliff's band members.

Interesting trivia 2

Kyra Sedgwick and Campbell Scott reunite in a 2005 indie movie Loverboy, directed by Sedgwick's husband Kevin Bacon (interesting enough, I happened to rent a Kevin Bacon movie along with Singles). However, Scott makes only a cameo appearance and this time, it's a one-night-stand kind of relationship (and he gets her pregnant again!). It's a movie with a very interesting premise, which essentially studies the psyche of a woman with a troubled past, eventually contributing to her warped views of being a parent and her unhealthy obsession with her child.

Interesting trivia 3

Cameron Crowe's diary that documents the ups and downs of the making of this movie can be found on his official website. Most of the difficulties faced in production seemed to revolve around one actor - Campbell Scott.

Apparently Scott and Crowe weren't on good terms on set, and interestingly, his pale, sickly look and short hair for Dying Young ("he looks like a leukemia victim", says Crowe) caused a great amount of tension for the production. Crowe even talks about how he mumbled "sick hair" over and over again in his sleep, as reported by his wife. Scott's personal convictions and style apparently did not go down well with Crowe as well, cumulating in a trashing session right on set where the voices of the 2 men boomed through the studio.

And before taking up his role as the rocker, Matt Dillon had spent some time with the members of Pearl Jam, called Mookie Blaylock at that time, prior to the shoot. In fact, as shooting went on, Crowe confesses that "I'm starting to sound like Matt Dillon. It's infectious, his New York jukebox accent."

Read all about it here.