''Some Girls'' is a 1988 American

coming-of-age film Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

comedy drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by Michael Hoffman and starring

Patrick Dempsey Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and race car driver. He is best known for his role as neurosurgeon Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy''. He had early success as an actor, starring in a number of fil ...

Jennifer Connelly Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an American actress. She began her career as a child model before making her acting debut in the 1984 crime film ''Once Upon a Time in America''. After having worked as a model for several year ...

, Sheila Kelley,

Lila Kedrova Yelizaveta Nikolaevna Kedrova (Russian: Елизавета Николаевна Кедрова; 9 October 1909 – 16 February 2000), known as Lila Kedrova, was a Russian-born French actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actre ...

and Andre Gregory.

Plot

Michael goes to

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, for Christmas at the request of his college girlfriend Gabriella, who left college in mid-semester. He arrives and is left waiting at the airport for hours. Gabriella (he calls her Gabi) eventually arrives to pick him up and explains that sometimes they just don't answer their phone. He brushes off his frustration because he's happy to see her. When Michael arrives at the house and meets Gabi's family, he finds them rather eccentric. Her father is wearing only a towel, but spends much of his time nude. He eventually explains that he is writing a treatise on

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pa ...

and cannot write while dressed. The mother is a fiercely religious and very quiet woman. A Catholic priest named Father Walter, a close friend of the family, is also present. Michael also meets Gabi's two energetic, beautiful, coquettish sisters Irenka and Simone, along with a handsome young handyman named Nick who is romantically involved with Irenka. Although Michael enthusiastically attempts to join in the unusual habits of the family, he quickly learns that fitting in will be a challenge. The situation is complicated by the illness of Gabi's grandmother, the matriarch of the family, and the reason why Gabi left school in the first place. Michael commits the apparently unforgivable gaffe of expressing his condolences to Gabi's mother. As soon as they have time alone, Gabi announces that she no longer loves him. His attempts to change her mind seem somewhat successful, but her fickleness continues to thwart him. In the meantime, he is seductively teased first by Irenka, then by Simone, all with Gabi's apparent complicity. She appears to have a change of heart toward Michael, but then again decides that she doesn’t love him. Gabi's grandmother, known only as "Granny," is in a care facility apparently suffering from senile dementia. Upon meeting Michael, she acts as if he is her long-dead husband, who was also named Michael. In an attempt to find her husband, she escapes from the hospital and goes to the country estate which they shared when they were first married. The girls, Nick, and Michael frantically rush to the estate, hoping Granny hasn't frozen in the cold. During their search, Michael gets lost in the woods and falls into a hole, unable to get out. He hears footsteps and finds it is Granny. She helps him out and they go back to the house, where Michael lights a fire and helps Granny out of her wet clothes. She then proceeds to talk to him as if he were her husband, and they form an unexpected bond. Granny falls ill on the return trip, and despite Nick's valiant attempt to reach a hospital in time, she dies. After the funeral, and a tryst with Irenka, Michael makes a solitary visit to Granny's grave, where he encounters a mysterious young woman and confesses to her that he deeply loved Granny. Later he recognizes the young woman from a photograph as Granny in her youth, and realizes their meeting may have been supernatural. Michael returns home and he never sees Gabi or her family again, as she has decided not to return to college.

Cast

as Michael *

as Gabriella d'Arc * Sheila Kelley as Irenka d'Arc *

Lance Edwards A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier (lancer). In Ancient warfare, ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thru ...

as Nick *

as Granny *

Florinda Bolkan Florinda Bolkan (born Florinda Soares Bulcão; 15 February 1941) is a retired Brazilian actress and model. Biography She was born in Uruburetama and lived in Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro until she moved to Italy. A former flight inspector fo ...

as Mrs. d'Arc * Andre Gregory as Mr. d'Arc * Ashley Greenfield as Simone d'Arc * Jean-Louis Millette as Father Walter * Sanna Vraa as Young Granny

Release

''Some Girls'' was released in the United States on September 9, 1988. In the Philippines, the film was released as ''Happy Together 2'' on October 3, 1991, connecting it to Patrick Dempsey's unrelated 1989 film '' Happy Together''; free ''Happy Together'' calendar cards were handed out to dating moviegoers in cinema lobbies.

References

External links

* * * {{Michael Hoffman 1988 films 1980s romantic comedy-drama films American romantic comedy-drama films Films directed by Michael Hoffman Films scored by James Newton Howard Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1988 comedy films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films