Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Karlee The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

jimmatlock2004 I was a little leery at first when I read the synopsis, but this is one movie I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters were interconnected, well chosen, and delivered good performances. However, I think the magic in this movie is the script and direction. As a gay person who loves gay themed movies, this one really stood out with a bizarre quad love story. People who found something in common with one person, whether they were alike or different. One of the things I liked most about the story had nothing to do with the main characters but the sushi chefs who added comedy at the right moment. I recognized the main male character from TRICK and I'm glad to see him in something else, his character free flowing style and intellect was the perfect counterpart for the main lesbian character to be mesmerized by. But we all too soon learn, she's easily mesmerized. Anyway, I say let's add this to our top 20 list gay movies that hits the A list as far as I'm concerned. Watch it, enjoy it.

gfvaughn To me this is a decently made digitally-recorded film. It looks better than many low budget features. Photography and sound is generally good except for interior lighting that in places seems a little too flat for my taste. Yes, it follows in the "screwball comedy" tradition to some extent. Occasionally, early directorial efforts attempt to bring in more themes than they can successfully integrate fully. The operatic theme and title wanders off and gets lost somewhere about halfway through. Two sushi chef characters are funny and provide more zest and unity end-to-end than the operatic theme. Various other minor characters who speak just a few words all enhance the story as well and keep it moving. Dialog relies on psycho-babble for exposition. This does not necessarily detract if the audience can understand it. But the thought that this might be lifted from Woody Allen never occurred to me while watching the film first without, then with, the commentary. Any resemblance this film may bear to certain W.A. hallmarks as others have suggested is coincidental. This isn't a mere goofy / silly wisecracking comedy, either. It has gender identity issues that inevitably darken the mood for the major part of its potential audience. This core aspect of the narrative reduces the film to a subculture where it needs to succeed within a limited cult following to become commercially successful. Several comments in the narrative reemphasize the writer-director's gender orientation and politics. Given key career and relationship choices that most of the lead female characters make during their arc, it's questionable whether this film is going to engage a lot of general public sympathy. Nevertheless, plentiful relationship dynamics such as basic ability to communicate apply to all romantic relationships. The outcome here is more positive and carries with it greater depth that gives this film its charm.

Roland E. Zwick Written and directed by Maria Maggenti, "Puccini For Beginners" is a tres chic romantic comedy set in a movie-spawned Manhattan where virtually everyone we meet is Caucasian, trendily upscale and sexually conflicted.The strained setup lands somewhere between a labored screwball sex farce and a recycled Woody Allen angst-fest: Allegra (Elizabeth Reaser) is an opera-loving, afraid-of-commitment lesbian who finds herself inadvertently and simultaneously dating both a man (Justin Kirk) and his longtime girlfriend (winningly played by Gretchen Mol). As Allegra bounces back and forth between her two oblivious paramours, the characters talk out the issues of their relationships as if they were channeling left-over bits from "Annie Hall" or "Manhattan." "Puccini for Beginners" is one of those small-scale independent features that thinks it's being smarter and more insightful about romantic relationships than it really is. Actually, after all those really sharp Woody Allen exposes on the same subject, very little in this film feels like fresh observation. To be truthful, with the exception of Mol's winsome Grace, most of the characters here are more annoying than they are appealing. Not only are the plotting and much of the writing too cutesy by half, but so is Maggenti's directorial style, which relies heavily on smart-alecky narration, freeze-framing, and dopey fantasy sequences to generate laughs."Puccini for Beginners" offers a few genuinely funny moments within its blessedly short 81-minute running time, but throughout we're plagued by the nagging and irreverent suspicion that the film might have been more accurately entitled "Puccini for Idiots."

Ed Uyeshima Directed and written by Maria Maggenti ("The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love"), this disheveled 2007 romantic triangle comedy has several likable elements, but it never seems to coalesce into something more resonant. The chief problem is that the protagonist, a neurotic, opera-loving lesbian writer appropriately named Allegra, is so perpetually self-absorbed that her dilemma never elicits much sympathy. Elizabeth Reaser is an appealing character actress but frankly not charismatic enough to get away with the commitment-phobic shenanigans that Maggenti throws her way in the acerbic script. The gap causes an odd imbalance with her more intriguing co-stars Justin Kirk and Gretchen Mol. Kirk, who soared as Prior Walter in Mike Nichols' epic 2003 adaptation of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America", harnesses his quirky persona effectively to play Philip, a bored philosophy professor who becomes attracted to Allegra.In turn, Allegra finds herself drawn to Philip but is still reeling from a break-up with her conflicted girlfriend of nine months. Meanwhile, Mol (refreshingly frank as "The Notorious Bettie Page") seems to be channeling a bit of Meg Ryan's flaky self-righteousness in playing Grace, a pert glass-blower who just broke up with Philip. Grace meets Allegra, and the standard complications ensue. Even with the lesbian angle, which Maggenti handles with aplomb, the indie movie feels more like a throwback to a 1930's screwball farce, especially seen in a hectic party scene where all three principals converge in a most haphazard way. Emotional isolation is a worthy theme to explore, but Maggenti can't make the film snap with the strength of her witty observations. One would have also expected a reference to Puccini, in particular, his tragic opera "Turandot", to be reflected more fully than it does here through the plodding plot structure. The 2007 DVD has an insightful commentary track from Maggenti and editor Susan Graef, as well as a couple of deleted scenes.