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REEL TO REAL
by Chuc LaVenture
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

The Object of My Affection

Jennifer Aniston is Nina Borowski, a social worker in Brooklyn. Her stepsister is Constance Miller (Allison Janney) who is married to Sidney Miller (Allan Alda), purportedly the most powerful publisher in the world. George Hanson (Paul Rudd) is the first grade teacher at the private elementary school that Constance's daughter attends. The movie opens with the opening curtain of the first grade's annual play, a remake of The Little Mermaid. Constance, a name dropping social climber who is always trying to fix Nina up with the right person, and Sidney, a man more interested in life than in his own fame, are so impressed with their daughter's performance and George's talent as a producer that they insist that George and his lover Joley attend the dinner party that they are having that evening. Nina, by virtue of being family, must also attend. Joley and Nina are next to one another at dinner. After dinner Nina and George gravitate to one another as Nina tries to avoid Constance and her herd of prospective husbands and George watches amusedly his social climbing lover Joley.

At this point Nina informs George that if he were really looking for a new place she would be happy to have him for a roommate. This comes as a complete shock to George. Good-bye George and Joley, hello George and Nina. George and Nina become the best of friends, much to the chagrin of her lover Vince (John Pandow). George and Nina settle into a comfortable life, one in which he recovers (hides?), and she vacillates. When Nina discovers that she's pregnant she asks George if he will raise her child with her. George, after initial reluctance, determines that he would love nothing more than to raise a child. They settle into a comfortable pregnancy, until George and Nina have what is for George an uncomfortably close physical moment. This moment coincides with Joley's decision to ask George to come back to him. He calls at "the moment" to invite George to accompany him to a lecture he's giving at George's old college. While at the lecture George meets Paul (Amo Gulinello), the affectionate friend of a critic acquaintance of Joley's, Nigel Hawthorne (Rodney Fraser). George and Paul escape the intense pedanticness of the lecture together. Much to the annoyance of all involved, Nigel, Joley, and Nina, George and Paul become lovers.

George's falling in love with Paul sets up the end of the film, which I will not detail here. This movie is a poignant love story on many levels: the relationship between George and Nina, the relationship between Nina and Vince, and the relationship between Paul and Nigel. The conclusion of the film is a heart-warming and inspiring comment on modern parenting, and the complexities of love and relationships. I left this film wanting a child more than I ever have in my life, and grateful for the two men who have loved me so richly in my life.

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