She's So Lovely Details

At one time Nick Cassavetes looked as if he would be just another actor with a more famous relative who would eke out a living in straight-to-video land (see Frank Stallone, Don Swayze, etc). However, he has successfully reinvented himself as a director and although the influences of his independent film-maker father John are clear to see (this is actually based on an unfilmed Cassavetes Sr script written a decade earlier), this affectingly offbeat drama stands up in its own right. Sean Penn plays a mentally troubled young man who is locked away in a psychiatric hospital when he goes berserk and shoots an ambulance driver. Ten years later he is released and sets out to find his wife (Robin Wright Penn), who unbeknown to him has divorced him and married John Travolta. It's a slight tale, but the performances, particularly from Sean Penn (who won the best actor award at Cannes), are finely judged and in its own peculiar way it's a heart-warming affair.

"...Penn does some of the best acting of his career. So does Wright Penn, and Travolta shows up at the half-way mark to do an irresistible turn in a rare supporting role..."