Puccini for Beginners is a theatrical comedy depicting the romantic trysts and leisure times of certain, perhaps imaginary kinds of New York intelligentsia who live in a world free of gender stereotypes. Allegra, a lipstick lesbian, is a first-time novelist festooned with a Book Critics' Circle Award, living in a rent-controlled apartment and spending her days going to the opera with her lipstick lesbian friends, most of whom have high-powered jobs in the arts. When her girlfriend of two years suddenly calls it quits, Allegra stumbles upon two improbable new love interests. Phillip is a wry assistant philosophy professor at Columbia whom she inadvertently charms while binge-eating hors-d'oeuvres at a party for publishing types. (She later pukes on his shoes, sealing the deal.) Grace is a gregarious investment banker whose true passion is, improbably, glass blowing. Both are straight, and unbeknownst to Allegra, dating one another.
With the scene set and with our disbelief suspended, we watch as Allegra, ever the hardened commitment-phobe, is saddled with marriage proposals and emotional demands from these two hopeless romantics, both of them oblivious of the other, and willing to redefine the notion of an adult relationship in the name of love. That director Maria Maggenti, has a background as an activist could inform the film's idealism. That the film took seven years to make prior to being shown at Sundance in 2006 demonstrates Maggenti's devotion to its cause.
Opens February 2
With the scene set and with our disbelief suspended, we watch as Allegra, ever the hardened commitment-phobe, is saddled with marriage proposals and emotional demands from these two hopeless romantics, both of them oblivious of the other, and willing to redefine the notion of an adult relationship in the name of love. That director Maria Maggenti, has a background as an activist could inform the film's idealism. That the film took seven years to make prior to being shown at Sundance in 2006 demonstrates Maggenti's devotion to its cause.
Opens February 2
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