A new film called Women in Trouble has issued its final trailer before hitting theaters next month, and it's a doozy. Tying the Los Angeles-ensemble ethos of Crash, the colorful melodrama of mid-'80s Almodóvar, the fleshy femme roundelay of Showgirls, and the guyliner flair of Josh Brolin into one histrionic bundle, the trailer may very well be the coming-out party for this year's Little Film That Could. As in, could blow your effing mind.
Women in Trouble's trailer gets right to work dispelling the vagueness connoted by its title: These aren't just any women, but a vital, vibrant cross-section of L.A.'s female population. And above a funky, punky rock riff, you are alerted that each "is in trouble": Elektra (Carla Gugino), the pregnant porn star; Doris (Connie Britton), trapped and panicked in a stalled elevator with Elektra; Maxine (Sarah Clarke), who interrupts her husband's (Simon Baker) afternoon office tryst; Holly (Adrianne Palicki), a flighty stripper whom Maxine hits with her car; and Cora (Marley Shelton), a flight attendant who joins the mile-high club with a flirty British rocker (Josh Brolin) in first class. Need I mention that Women in Trouble is the work of a man?
Not that that has to be a dealbreaker. (I mean, hello? George Cukor? Almodovar? Herbert Ross? Francois Ozon?) But once the sassy introductions are out of they way, writer-director Sebastian Gutierrez's tender side kicks in -- along with the requisite funky-but-sensitive acoustic riff cast off from the latest Bank of America campaign. It looks and feels like there's chemistry beneath the gloss, yet the introduction of the ensemble's old-soul adolescent ("I'm young, but I understand loneliness") nudges the spot into catharsis overdrive.
Commence sobbing, hugs, heartbreak and lesbian confessions, interrupted on occasion by a few portent-piercing laffs (and male faces, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to stem the estrogen tsunami off the coast of Feature Attraction Island. Even Women in Trouble's target audience might be a little put off by the overbearing facility of it all, but! You can't really count out a cast like this, and anyway, as Gugino asks through the sheen of tears: "If we don't tell people how we feel, what are we doing here?" If that's what validates a trailer these days, then this one is just about perfect.
VERDICT: Undercooked, needs seasoning.
· Women in Trouble [Trailer Addict]