I Love You, Don't Touch Me
Starting with the film's title, writer/director Julie Davis takes on the
supposed conflicts of today's single gal: madonna versus whore, romance versus
sex, balding Jewish mensch versus dashing British cad. Yes, it's Ally McBeal
meets Woody Allen as Katie (Marla Schaffel), a 25-year-old virgin, diddles over
the fate of her hymen. Smug and self-absorbed, she interrupts her self-pitying
whining only to spew male-bashing bile with her salacious pal Janet (Meredith
Scott Lynn). It's a bitter, cliché-infested look at the folly of
attraction and the "I'm Venus, you're Mars" school of gender typing. It's also
downright distasteful: in one scene, Katie likens her dismal dating life to the
Holocaust.
Although Davis is right to question the double standards surrounding women's
sexuality, this ground was covered with more wit and insight by director Kevin
Smith -- a man no less! -- in last year's Chasing Amy. Indeed, at one point,
Katie and Janet accuse each other of hobbling feminism's advance. A more likely
culprit? Self-loathing trash like this.
-- Alicia Potter
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