Date with a Lonely Girl (4 Stars)

"Date with a lonely girl", also known as "T.R. Baskin", was one of my mother's favourite films. I remember watching it on television a few times. Like all families in the pre-Internet age, we bought a TV guide every week, and my mother closely examined what films would be shown. She was always excited when "Date with a lonely girl" would be shown. Imagine my surprise when I read up on it and found that it has a whopping 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I couldn't remember it being that bad. Nevertheless, it's been released on Blu-ray, so I ordered a copy before Christmas, which finally arrived this week.

The film is about a young woman who moves from Findlay, Ohio to Chicago. The reasons for her move aren't stated, but it was obviously a spontaneous decision. When she arrives she has no job and nowhere to live. She hadn't even told her parents she was leaving. She sends them a telegram to tell them not to worry about her.

A few weeks later two former fraternity brothers, Larry and Jack, bump into one another on the street. Larry works in Chicago as a children's book author. Jack is a salesman from New York, visiting on business. Despite being married, Jack asks Larry if he can recommend female company for his weekend in Chicago. Larry recommends T.R.

In case you're wondering what T.R. stands for, we're never told. She claims that it stands for nothing, it's her complete name.

T.R. visits Jack in his hotel room. While they're talking, we see in flashbacks how she arrived, how she found a job, and most importantly, how she met Larry.

While watching the film, I tried to figure out why the critics hate it. Maybe it's the characters. Everyone we see is screwed up, in one way or another. Everyone is socially awkward. Even T.R. herself has a warped sense of humour that alienates everyone around her. Ironically, Jack, despite being a man who cheats on his wife, is the only normal, well-balanced person in the film.

And yet, from what I've read, many viewers enjoy the film, not just my mother. What makes the film interesting is its refusal to resolve neatly or deliver conventional meaning. On the surface it’s an unglamorous character study about a woman who, time and again, misreads her life and relationships, and pays a quiet price for it. Beneath the surface it’s really about the psychological cost of independence when the world isn’t set up to support it; it’s about the frustration of being clever yet misunderstood, resilient yet repeatedly disappointed, and the corrosive effect of living in a big city where everyone is anonymous.

I don't consider it a bad film. If my mother were still alive we'd sit and watch it together, like in the old days.