# Object of My Affection, The (1998)

### reviewed by
Seth Bookey

Wendy Wasserstein's screenplay of *The Object of My Affection* has borne out good movie. It's based upon Stephen MacCauley's novel of the same name--one of my all-time favorites. The two works are, however, mutually exclusive.

George Hansen (Paul Rudd) and Nina Barowski (Jennifer Aniston) are introduced awkwardly at a dinner party, when George's lover Joley (Tim Daly) breaks up with George via Nina. George discovers they have broken up when Nina offers him a place to stay in her Brooklyn apartment. Luckily, they soon become fast friends and actually get along much better with each other than they do their respective mates.

When Nina becomes pregnant by the overbearing Vince (John Pankow), she ultimately decides she would rather have George raise the baby with her. What ensues is a struggle for George--wanting some form of fatherhood or a life of his own.

Some people might object to the theme of the woman who goes over the unobtainable man because it's safer than facing her own issues (a la My Best Friend's Wedding). But, Nina comes to her own conclusions, and finds a way to be happy. There is also the overused device of ending the film in the future, and equalizing all the characters with fairy-tale happy endings.

Expecting the movie to be completely awful, based on advance press and Wendy Wasserstein's admission that the George character was "a lump" and that she decided to play up the Nina story more, I was pleasantly surprised. Wasserstein's screenplay is both funny and touching, and the performances by Rudd and Aniston save this film from being a complete flop. In fact, Aniston's performance here alone was enough to win me as a fan. She's quite endearing.

The supporting cast is also good: Tim Daly excels as the narcissistic Joley; Allison Janney as Nina's stepsister Connie and Alan Alda as Connie's husband do not overdo their comic roles. In fact, this is one of the first times I have not wanted to see Ald a shot to death on film (which he finally was in *Murder at 1600*). Nigel Hawthorne plays the older drama critic who points out to Nina, "What happens when all these homosexual men at your dinner table leave you for other men?" It's a nice change from the "lonely gay man" image.

The weakest member of the cast is Amo Gulinello as Paul. It's hard to see why he and George get together and fall in love. It's pretty clear that he is only there to accentuate to Nina that George might not be hopeless devoted to her for long, as she grows very jealous.

One frustration with this adaptation is that George was meant to be a lump--not a stud. There is little of MacCauley's sensibilities left in this story. Paul Rudd is one of the cutest actors alive, and he can also act. It's not difficult to see why both men and women would want to rope him in. He is actually cuter than most of the men Nina goes out with; why wouldn't she fall for him? It might have been more poignant of she fell for a man who was both gay and not absolutely stunning; Paul Rudd is the latter.

Some of the best scenes are the ones in which Nina and George take dancing lessons. It showed both their growing fondness for one another, as well the passing seasons. Unfortunately, an otherwise funny and touching movie experience is marred by two very poor editing mistakes. One occurs when George and Paul go swimming, and the other is when we finally see Nina's baby born. It is obvious some last-minute editing was going on, and there is no excuse for such blunder in this day and age.

Bottom line: If you feel you must choose, read the book. You will probably laugh a lot more at the self-deprecating humor of George.

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