sell. Especially when they’re unexpected, so this latest ensemble dra-medy teaches us. Lisa Kudrow sheds her “Phoebe” sitcom style and loses her blonde hair, to pose as a confused, suburban brunette, living in a world full of past secrets. A twisted independent version of “Love Actually” meets this year’s “Crash” the story is told in vignettes about a group of people whose paths will eventually cross because life is unpredictable. Short of any clichés and gimmicks the movie weaves in and out of the issues of a huge ensemble cast, mainly newcomers but some familiar stars – Laura Dern (a lesbian), Tom Arnold (a lonely widow), Jason Ritter (his gay son) and Maggie Gyllenhaall (pure band-singer trouble), who steals the plot with her usual cucumber cool sexiness. Like these characters, we all have secrets – a history, some of which we’d prefer to forget. This movie forces us to evaluate our mistakes, move to the future and find our own happy endings, by embracing what we’re made of. Because this happy ending has an “all’s well that ends swell” kind of feel, it’s one of the year’s best.
