“Laura Smiles” is an alarmingly effective portrait of a woman’s mental breakdown. We are introduced to “Laura” at her happiest time, in a warm, loving relationship with her fiancé (a very appealing Kip Pardue) in the city, literally the love of her life. In flashbacks, we then see the sweet development of this relationship out of order as these moments become brightly lit and colored memories that desperately intrude on her later in life, as she becomes consumed with guilt and remorse over his fate. These feelings start to overwhelm her current life as a wife and mother. As something inconsequential in what she calls her “suburban drudgery” triggers the past — in the supermarket, cooking, cleaning, at a school play– she acts out increasingly aberrantly to counteract the feelings they generate, especially when she can no longer distinguish past from present from dreams, recalling Blanche Du Bois.
You May Also Like
Eva Braun takes inspiration from the actual sex scandals in the Italian Parliament and the 120 Days of Sodoma by Marquis De Sade. This mix create a grotesque journey through power, sex and will of people who does everything to be successful. Pier is a powerful and important Mogul who keeps the power in his country. Elegant, ironical and well educated, he has a bizarre sexual instinct which is satisfied by her mistress, Romy, who collect people, men and women (musicians, directors, writers and businessmen) which agree to satisfy his weird fantasies for getting his help to the way to success. Like a Decameron, a group of people in a house meet their pride and greed for power and sex.
After her husband leaves her for a younger woman, Alice Washington a middle aged mother of two decides to complete her college education at Smith College. She and her 20 year old room mate Zoe Burns share their experiences, conflicts and interest in their poetry professor.
Charlie and Lisa, two divorced parents in their 40’s who find themselves at a midlife crossroads. Both are single parents and they have four complicated teenagers.
When money, affairs, power and lies collide, Nicole Wright, a beautiful and successful music CEOs life is about to crumble in front of her. While leaving her husband and son, the lies that have built her music empire is threatening to tear her down. While having an affair with Kingston, the sexy artist on the rise who promises her everything, Nicole learns the hard way that looks can be deceiving and his motives are as dark as the secrets she keeps.
One suspects writer-director Carol Lai may have harboured some Black Swan ambitions with a tale that also centers around a stage practitioner who embarks on an unwitting destructive journey when playing a role to die for. The Second Woman, whose Chinese title Romance Riddle may hold better clues as to how this film developed, being more of a guessing game that threw constant clues rather than a overly romantic film about twins falling in love with a man who decided it’s perfectly OK to string both women along, until he discovers that this spells double trouble.
Inspired by the filmmaker’s own story, an aspiring screenwriter and musician’s life quickly unravels when he is diagnosed with a crippling form of OCD. While struggling through his darkest hour, he must help himself and those around him tackle a litany of universal issues: grief, coming-of-age, addiction, redemption and the power of social connection.
When Rudy Baylor, a young attorney with no clients, goes to work for a seedy ambulance chaser, he wants to help the parents of a terminally ill boy in their suit against an insurance company. But to take on corporate America, Rudy and a scrappy paralegal must open their own law firm.
An art teacher’s plans fall apart when he kidnaps a ballplayer’s daughter to repay a debt to a ruthless mob boss.
