Puccini for Beginners

STRAND
Street: July 3
Prebook: now

> Woody Allen-style romantic comedy with a bisexual heroine.

A lesbian variation on the New York City romantic comedy perfected by Woody Allen, Puccini for Beginners concerns a writer (Elizabeth Reaser) who begins separate affairs with a philosophy professor (Justin Kirk) and his girlfriend (Gretchen Mol). The film is an entertaining affair that benefits from picturesque Big Apple locations and earnest work by its three leads. Though the characters are all too smart and too neurotic for their own good, filmmaker Maria Maggenti (The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love) keeps their entanglements appropriately light and lively.

Shelf Talk: Straight and gay women viewers are the target audience for this frothy concoction. Mol's recent turn as kink queen Bettie Page has kept her in the spotlight, but her name is not as significant a marketing tool in this case as the film's genre and bisexual angle.