Suddenly Naked (2001)

Director:

Anne Wheeler

Writer:

Elyse Friedman (writer)

Release Date:

8 September 2001 (Canada)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

What happens when a sexy novelist is exposed?

Plot:

A famous 'Jackie Collins' type novelist falls for a quirky twenty year old kid. |

Plot Keywords:

Older Woman Younger Man Relationship | Body Painting

Awards:

5 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Wendy Crewson	...	Jackie York
Peter Coyote	...	Lionel Heathcote
Joe Cobden	...	Patrick McKeating
Emmanuelle Vaugier	...	Lupe Martinez
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Emy Aneke	...	Production Assistant
Sean Campbell	...	John
Lillian Carlson	...	Bus Lady
Jennifer Carmichael	...	Louise (Patrick's Neighbor) (as Jennifer Anne Carmichael)
Nicola Cavendish	...	Suzanne Steinman
Stacy Fair	...	Tina
Jano Frandsen	...	Svee
Dan Joffre	...	Greatest Fan
Peter Kelamis	...	Jeremy
Tyronne L'Hirondelle	...	Upscale Waiter
Gus Lynch	...	Roman
Camille Mitchell	...	Sasha
Terry David Mulligan	...	TV Host
Eliza Murbach	...	Kelly
David Neale	...	Garus
Enuka Okuma	...	Andrea
Gerard Plunkett	...	Rod Poker
Xantha Radley	...	Café Waitress
Lynda Riley	...	Esthetician
Ron Selmour	...	Hotel Security Guy
Michael Shanks	...	Danny Blair / Donny Blitzer
Jud Tylor	...	Crystal
Vincent Walker	...	Taxi Driver (as Vince Walker)
Dean Wray	...	Macho Guy
Jonathan Young	...	Waiter

Also Known As:

Mise à nu (Canada: French title)
Show and Tell (Canada: English title) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, language and brief drug content.

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Iceland:16 | Australia:MA | USA:R

Company:

Creative Differences

Goofs:

Factual errors: Jackie York is at Lionel Heathcote's place, and he offers her a "Pinot Aurrexois 1994" and pours her a glass of red wine. Pinot Aurrexois is a white grape.

Quotes:

Jackie York: It's better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for who you are not.

Movie Connections:

References Napoléon (1927)

Here's a case of a director getting her hands on some promising material and not delivering.

Here's a case of a director getting her hands on some promising material and not delivering. I sat in the theatre thinking this story of a writer so anxious to protect her public image she end up almost ruining her personal life might be halfway decent if better choices had been made. But it seemed as if the director didn't really understand the story she was telling. The story's protagonist, Jackie is played by Wendy Crewson as a middle aged Jackie Collins-style writer who falls for a twenty year old from the creative writing class she teaches. Patrick (Joe Cobdon) seems to be as in to Jackie as she is to him and after some unconvincing flirting between the two of them they end up in bed in a sequence cut together like an eighties teen-film style montage.

What puzzled me was that much of the dialogue and what happens suggested this was meant to be more along the lines of a Margaret Atwood-type character than Jackie Collins. Had Crewson played it more like an intellectual instead of a hammy romance novelist we might have better understood the stake's of going public with her affair. We also might bett er have understood Patrick's attraction to Jackie. After all we're meant to think this woman's writing got this confused kid through some awkward adolescent periods.

It's probably not fair to ask Crewson to shoulder the blame. One assumes director Anne Wheeler would have reigned her in if she didn't agree with Crewson's characterization. But she didn't even have the sense to control her own hammy impulses. There were several pointless fast motion scenes, at least two excruciating Lilith Fair scored mope montages and it seemed whenever she wasn't sure how to block a scene she'd plop the characters in a bubblebath or a hottub.

My main reason for attending this film was because I had read the screenwriter's funny and great novel, Then Again. This story doesn't appear to be at that level but it's well structured and there are some good lines and moments that might have been funny had the director had some sense of timing and the lead hadn't shouted all her lines.

Joe Cobdon is sweet and likable as Patrick but Wheeler has him juggle at least three times. Because that's what young people do, right? Juggle.

There are some okay scenes between Crewson and Peter Coyote and the film is generally better in the second half when it's a little more serious in tone. Both Wheller and Crewson seem more comfortable in that milieu. Perhaps they should stick to it in the future.