‘Geographically Desirable’ Review
Stars: Blair Bowers, Andrew Agner-Nichols, Nic Detorie, Felicia Gonzalez Brown, Josh Adams, Sarah Allyn Collier, Rick Kain, Connie Bowman, Emily Morrison, Joy Nathan, Paul Fahrenkopf, Steve Ray, Molly Boyle, Bob Hurley, Scott Gardner | Written by Mike Kravinsky | Directed by Michael Kravinsky
Described as a cross between The Newsroom and Hope Floats, Geographically Desirable tells of an overworked sleep deprived TV news woman, Nicole, whose life is derailed when she inherits a house in a small quirky town after her Uncle passes away. Torn between the fast paced excitement of life in the big city, and the comforting embrace of the small town, she has to decide what is right in her life and whether a change would be for the better or worse.
The first thing that struck me about Geographically Desirable was that every time Nicole, played by Blair Bowers, yawned, (which happens a lot) I found myself feeling tired and yawning myself. Weirdly, when she felt more awake, I too felt more awake as well. At first I assumed it was some kind of mind controlling, subliminal message being beamed through my eyes. Looking back, that was probably a bit extreme and unrealistic. In fact, it was the clever way that this film showed Nicole’s tired and blurry dream-like state. I felt it was particularly impressive, and empathising with Nicole made the film a lot more enjoyable as you flickered between waking and sleeping states with her.
The story of this film is your classic ‘big city workaholic girl forced into the small town world’ deal but the main thing about it is that it doesn’t feel clichéd which is very important. There are some points during Geographically Desirable where the acting was a little stiff, especially in some of the scenes where heated arguments were happening, killing the mood a little, but this was rare. Overall the feel-good message of ‘your job isn’t everything’ shines through like having a staring contest with the sun. The relationship between Nicole and the love interest of this film ‘Joe’ works well most of the time, although a small issue was that he woos her with his poetry and insists on whispering in her ear. Now he is definitely saying something, but I only got one word in three on a good day and my hearing isn’t that bad.
Geographically Desirable is a good film. I won’t knock it. It is definitely more rom than com but it delivers a good message and has that feel-good factor we’re all looking for. Also, it has a really cute dog in it, so if you are into that kind of thing it’s a bonus!
