In a small Southern American town, Paul, who is known for having sexual relations with every girl in town, falls in love with his best friend's younger sister who is a virgin. Paul must try to prove to everyone that this time he is in love rather than in lust. [TRAILER]

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DAVID JOHNSON'S REVIEW

This review was difficult for me to write. Perhaps it was a little too close to home, and maybe it was hard for me to accept that this movie could capture emotions so well that I have found difficult to put into words. Yet this movie makes great demands on it's audience. Although it's hard for me to tell, it might be difficult for some people to understand this movie. I believe there are people who go through their entire lives without risking Love. People who have never felt the intensity of this amazing emotion and have never felt the pain that can also result may find that some scenes simply don't make sense.

That is the essence of this movie. It is a movie without complicated characters, or much in the way of intellect - it is a movie of raw emotion. Paul is a young man in a small town who has fallen in Love with his best friends sister. She and his best friend are the most fortunate people in town - relatively well off and living in a sheltered life. Paul has spent most of his adulthood womanizing most of the town. He's known throughout town as the guy who convinces girls he loves them only to break their hearts - after all he really only wants some fun. Yet to everyone's disbelief he actually Loves this girl. It's obvious that at the very least he has feelings for this girl that he's never felt before. He refuses to have sex with her (even at her advances) because it would put her in the same class as the others. As their relationship progresses, the little things break them apart. In a final blow to him, she betrays him so completely that he cannot find it in his heart to forgive it - even when she uses Love as an excuse.

Paul's uncle is a windower who has an adopted daughter. He is perhaps the living memory of a million past Loves. Someone who has expierenced enough pain and learned to accept it. He learns to accept both the beauty and the sadness in the dream his daughter had ("I dreampt that you were drowning, and I had to watch you cry.") Paul's mother is bitter. Although she now works at a hospital as a clown nurse, she appears on the outside to be happy. After all look at all the happiness she brings others. Yet at the same time, she feels such emptiness in her life - none of these people truly return her Love.

This is a poorly educated town. No one does anything except fix up cars to race around the local track. There is rarely a question of what college one will attend or what part of country their job will be located or even which path they would like to explore. These people think about if they will have a job, if they will graduate from high school. This affords the filmmakers the unique opportunity to look at emotion unhindered by plot and any of the complexities of life. These people will not be forced to make a decision to go off save the world or stay with their Love. They will not wonder why this woman had to choose this gin joint in the middle of northern Africa.

All the Real Girls has several long musical montages, and the music is often used to build emotion. However, in the emotional tone of the piece it makes sense. And this music is frequently shed to an almost errie silence when these characters truly touch and communicate. The characters are not complicated people, yet as a collective they form an interesting subset for this emotional journey.

In the end we try and ask ourselves what Love is. Is Love forever? What does it truly mean to Love someone? Perhaps the movie is horribly depressing. It seems to come to the conclusion that Love will hurt everyone. And perhaps it will. Love isn't something human beings should be trusted with - everyone will leave you at some point, Love can't be forever (someone has to die first). But at the same time Love is what makes us human. Love is perhaps the best thing in the entire world.

In the words of Homer Simpson: "I can't live the button down life like you. I want it all! The terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles. Sure, I might offend a few of the blue-noses with my cocky stride and musky odors - Oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called "City Fathers" who cluck their tounges, stroke their beards, and talk about 'What's to be done with this Homer Simpson?"

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