Eliza Dushku and That Night
That Night. I love this movie. It doesn't get rated well, but I like it.
Okay, perhaps it's not one of the greatest movies of all time, but it has
an inexplicable mood about it; I like movies that put me in a mood. The
setting is nostalgic. They have real cars; I miss real cars.
The music is great. It's a coming of age story—my favorite genre. And
it introduced me—and the rest of the world—to Eliza Dushku. It was those
big sad eyes that made me first notice the movie. 
The
movie primarily stars Juliette Lewis. I didn't like her at first—is that
a voice? But she grows on you. Her character, Sheryl, greets everyone with
"Hey now!" It sounds odd, but Juliette Lewis
says it every which way and makes it work. In my mind the real star of
the movie is Eliza Dushku as Alice Bloom. Alice is such an endearing character.
She introduces herself: "Hi! Alice Bloom. I ate the
frog." Alice sees Sheryl's romance with Rick through young eyes--idealistic
eyes. She sees whats right about it, what's wonderful about it, and carries
a hopeful optimism for it all through the movie--
an optimism that Sheryl doesn't share. Alice needs Sheryl's idealized romance because her own life has it's problems; she lives Sheryl's life vicariously. "If I could be her for just one night—even for just one minute." "She didn't know me or my name, but I wanted to laugh her laugh and dream her dreams." It is Alice's idealism that evenutally resolves all the problems of Sheryl's romance. Her idealism triumphs! Eventually she adopts Sheryl's greeting—something I had waited for and anticipated through the whole movie. At the end she greets a firefly with, "Hey
now."
| Sheryl | 8 |
| Rick | 2 |
| Alice | 2 |
"See if he had died before meeting me, he would have never been loved by anyone and you need someone to love you to keep your spirit alive after you die." - Sheryl
I have received numerous questions about the song "Ruler of My Heart." The version of this song heard in this movie is wonderfully performed by Lisa Fischer. I have not been able to find it anywhere; so here is a copy (.mp3) from the movie end credits.
