Made-Up (2002)

Director:

Tony Shalhoub

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

A Vanity Production

Plot:

A look at how our cultural obsession with youthful good looks affects women who are told their value is dependent on their appearance. |

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Brooke Adams	...	Elizabeth James Tivey
Lynne Adams	...	Kate James
Eva Amurri	...	Sara Tivey
Kalen Conover	...	Chris
Light Eternity	...	Molly Avrums
Jim Issa	...	Eli
Lance Krall	...	Simon
Tony Shalhoub	...	Max Hires
Gary Sinise	...	Duncan Tivey

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content.

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Sister Films LLC

Trivia:

Originally a one-woman played written and performed by 'Lynne Adams', called "Two Faced". She wanted her sister, 'Brooke Adams', to play the leading role in the movie, so she wrote in a role for herself. She also created a role for her brother-in-law, Tony Shalhoub, who directed the film.

Their tagline says it all

I was sure glad I didn't pay to see this movie, because it was beyond doubt one of the slowest, most unclever attempts at an indie romantic comedy I've seen in a long while. The conceit at making a "mockumentary of the making of a mockumentary" failed to disguise the over-rehearsed, overly-melodramatic scenes between mom and daughter (who, big surprise, don't understand each other), ex-wife and Other Woman (oho, they have issues!) and former actress and schlub (naturally, they'll take to each other with time). The whole point of a mockumentary is to show things in a surprising way, and there were no surprises here, down to the final message that we already learned in "Freaky Friday" and "Pieces of April" (ie, "the kids are alright and we moms ain't bad either"). Aside from Shaloub, the actors fail to convince that they are something beyond ticketholders on the vanity-project train... Brooke Adams is particularly unlikeable as both a character and an actress in this film. What really got me, though, was the transposition of Hollywood youth-worship on Middle America; outside of Tinseltown, some women really do turn 50 looking 50, and they can accept it with the maturity their age has granted them. This movie lets us down because, like "Grease," it perpetuates the notion that all of a woman's relationship problems can be solved if she just fixes her makeup and puts on a push-up bra. The only redeeming quality in this film was Michael Wolfe's jazz piano, which unfortunately probably totals 90 seconds of the movie.