In the dark comedy Nancy, Please, a neurotic and feckless Yale grad student has just moved in with his new girlfriend and realizes that he has left his copy of Little Dorrit at his old digs. His former female roommate is both hostile and passive aggressive, and she won’t return it. It’s a big deal, because he is up against a thesis deadline and his notes are annotated in the book.
But the central joke in the movie is that losing the book shouldn’t be THAT big a deal. Sure, she’s being a jerk, but it’s pretty hard to imagine that he can’t reconstruct his notes, as he is advised by everyone else in his life except one friend who has the excuse of being drunk. The grad student can’t let it go, making this molehill into a mountain that obstructs his progress on any and all fronts. As he becomes more and more emotionally paralyzed, his academic career, his new relationship and even the walls of his new apartment disintegrate. And a dose of maturity would solve the whole thing.
I did chuckle when his girlfriend, alarmed by his escalating obsession, announces “I can’t support this any more. I withdraw my support.” Still, we’re talking about a $3.99 rental and 84 minutes of your life, and Nancy, Please just is not THAT funny. Nancy, Please is available on VOD from Amazon, Vudu and Google Play.
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