I find this character really compelling with the caste of mind that would make even a brief conversation with her a rare treat. She is shooting from the hip kind of thinking on her feet interesting. Of course a good deal of credit to the writer of the dialog but delivered in a remarkable fashion by Susan Traylor, who I had never heard of before. I expect great things from her in the future (the future of at least my cinema experience since this is 7 years old).
Now VF is no model of stability and her central core is that of a "damaged" persona, apt to roil in the curious activity of guilt and self loathing. Even her name gives away a bit of what her inclinations are in relating to a variety of life's testing situations. There is fearfulness and courage, intelligence and wit mixed with a sense of the foreboding of just-not-good-enough to make such a character develop in the viewer an interest in what happens to her as well as pulling for her decisions even if you might think them self defeating.
Valerie is a flake of sorts; a characterization I would think she would embrace even though it obviously doesn't fully define her. But you admire the courage and willingness not to settle for some offering of white-picket-fence illusion in place of the certainty of what it may take to ground her.
Kudos to the supporting cast, who provide a framework where VF is able to reveal as much of her as she is willing to expose. The in-laws were terrific in their obvious affection for VF and even the difficult tolerance for her heartfelt revelations of life with their son and the flaws in her capability of not being able to resist self-destructive actions. The boyfriend-fiancé is perfect to develop the anatomy of the velvet trap tempting VF to capitulate. What she decides to do may jar some viewers but how she does it is always delicious.
Now VF is no model of stability and her central core is that of a "damaged" persona, apt to roil in the curious activity of guilt and self loathing. Even her name gives away a bit of what her inclinations are in relating to a variety of life's testing situations. There is fearfulness and courage, intelligence and wit mixed with a sense of the foreboding of just-not-good-enough to make such a character develop in the viewer an interest in what happens to her as well as pulling for her decisions even if you might think them self defeating.
Valerie is a flake of sorts; a characterization I would think she would embrace even though it obviously doesn't fully define her. But you admire the courage and willingness not to settle for some offering of white-picket-fence illusion in place of the certainty of what it may take to ground her.
Kudos to the supporting cast, who provide a framework where VF is able to reveal as much of her as she is willing to expose. The in-laws were terrific in their obvious affection for VF and even the difficult tolerance for her heartfelt revelations of life with their son and the flaws in her capability of not being able to resist self-destructive actions. The boyfriend-fiancé is perfect to develop the anatomy of the velvet trap tempting VF to capitulate. What she decides to do may jar some viewers but how she does it is always delicious.