This was the first feature film directed by the multi-talented Adrienne Shelly. She also wrote it and played the lead role of Donna, the kind of girl who in New York slang of yesteryear used to be called 'ditsy' (a word presumably forgotten by now). In other words, she is charmingly living in a world of her own, sees things, imagines things, and may or may not be a bit crazy. Adrienne Shelly was a combination of a waif and a spunky comedienne. I cannot think of any other actress with her particular mixture of qualities. So one must classify her as unique. This low-budget independent film was shot in Greenwich Village and it has that distinctive insouciance and subtle humour which used to be peculiar to creative Manhattan residents. These days, people are rapidly forgetting how to laugh, as they are too busy snarling and ranting about political and sociological issues to remember that there is any such thing as humour. How can anybody laugh who spends all his or her time shouting? But these were gentler days, the days of the mid-nineties, when Manhattan still chuckled. And one of the shining talents then was Adrienne Shelly. Who could have imagined then that she only had ten years left to live, as she was only 30 and had everything ahead of her? It is very uncomfortable watching this lovely little film now because of its astonishing premonitory quality, knowing what later happened to Ms. Shelly. As part of the comedy of the film, Donna goes repeatedly to a fortune teller, brilliantly portrayed by Louise Lasser, who specialises in gloomy predictions. She repeatedly tells Donna that there is nothing ahead of her but a violent death. This may have been amusing in 1996, but it was not funny at all in 2006, which was the year that Ms. Shelly was violently murdered in Manhattan, at the age of only 40. It is too much like fiction becoming fact. I don't imagine Ms. Shelly's surviving family can bear to sit through this film, which seems like a gruesome prediction of what actually happened. For those less susceptible to the trauma of subsequent real events, the film is a quiet delight, and very original and imaginative.
Review of Sudden Manhattan
