Tender, true and a touch irritating, "All the Real Girls" reflects its subject: young love.
The story is simple. The roguish Paul (Paul Schneider) starts seeing Noel (Zooey Deschanel), the sister of his best mate, Tip (Shea Whigham). There's love, angst and tears before bedtime...
"I know the way you are. You're like me. We're partners in crime," Tip tells his friend, wary of his womanising reputation.
They're a pair of arrested adolescents, still dogging around their hometown well into their 20s, drinking tinnies with the same zero-ambition buddies.
The film is most impressive handling these relationships - capturing the inarticulate interactions of emotionally stunted blokes; showing the intense love that can exist between heterosexual men.
A shame, then, that it drifts off to focus almost exclusively on Paul and Noel's burgeoning romance, which starts sweet ("You're the first person that I've wanted to talk to for more than five minutes ever") but eventually feels false: "I wish it didn't hurt with every thought of you. You have my heart." Er, who speaks like that?
Schneider is a likeable actor - perhaps too likeable to convince as a callous Casanova - while how much his character's alleged predatory sexual prowess is down to bravado, jealous ex's or actual fact is an interesting issue too soon discarded.
Patricia Clarkson is her reliable self as his mum - a children's entertainer who looks desperately doleful as a clown - but Deschanel never feels true as a downhome girl discovering love and sex.
While the involving first act meanders away, the visuals remain strong throughout. Writer-director David Gordon Green ("George Washington") speaks best with his camera, and the Southern town setting is beautifully shot, with audio overlapping from scene to scene, creating a beguiling atmosphere.
If the script matched the camerawork, this would be special. As is, it plays like Dawson's Creek directed by Terrence Malick.
All the Real Girls (2003)
