Cameron Crowe’s 2nd outing as a director he shows us “love is easy to start and hard to finish.” The film is set in Seattle and Crowe uses the backdrop of the ‘90s, social issues, dating and the Seattle music
Cameron Crowe’s 2nd outing as a director he shows us “love is easy to start and hard to finish.” The film is set in Seattle and Crowe uses the backdrop of the ‘90s, social issues, dating and the Seattle music scene as a character in the film. The film is centered around an apartment building where Cliff (Matt Dillon) and Janet (Bridget Fonda, of the famed Fonda family. Her Grandpa Henry won 2 Oscars, her Aunt Jane won 2 Oscars and her father Peter is a two-time Oscar Nominee) and Steve Dunne (Campbell Scott) all live. The film intertwines the love life of Janet and Cliff and what being single means for Steve.
Kyra Sedgwick plays Linda Powell; she begins a relationship with Steve after a chance meeting at a grunge band concert and it leads to quite a “mis-hap”. The film tells multiple tales and examines the small facets we all face being single. The angst, insecurities, confidence, safe-sex era, sadness, joy, mishaps and laughs that go with relationships.
Notable in the movie is Pearl Jam as themselves. At the time the Seattle music scene was the flavor of the month and Cameron Crowe (former rock writer for Rolling Stone magazine) lived in Seattle, so he delivers probably the most authentic film I’ve ever seen about being single. This is the magic of movies. When we can look at a screen and see ourselves or be reminded of a good time or a bad time or a story we’ve heard. In all honesty, I was not the biggest fan of “Singles” when I first saw it.
The more and more I became a Cameron Crowe fan and endlessly viewed “Jerry Maguire”, “Almost Famous” and “Say Anything”; I decided it was time for a re-visit of “Singles”. In fact it was not until I was in a long-term relationship myself, that I saw just how relevant “Singles” is. It’s a love-letter to the sad times, the music, our friends, times we made a fool of ourselves and most of all to the growth being single gives us.
Like all of Crowe’s movies the Soundtrack is not only a character, but drives the story and leaves us being connected to certain scenes because of the music. Crowe who adapts this film technique from Martin Scorsese (the master of using music in film). The top ten list are films to entertain single people and examine the tonics of being single for both men and women.
