Movie review: Ira and Abby

Blocked and dragged meets fun and driven: Hurricane Abby blows into the Big Apple, taking Ira by storm.

by John P. Meyer

In the board game of life, the dice don't seem to be rolling Ira's way.

Ira's the thirtyish neurotic son of paired neurotic analyst (therapist?) parents, which counts for several strikes against his emotional functionality right out of the gate. (O.K., I know we're only allowed three strikes, so maybe his being neurotic figures as a foul tip.) Ira is blocked with a capital B: he can't complete the first page of the master's thesis he's been working on for several years. (Page, Hell: he can't even type a single word onto the blindingly blank sheet.) Ira's so indecisive he has trouble ordering breakfast at the corner diner, changing his mind about orange juice and pancakes while the long-suffering waiter does the back-and-forth shuffle while revising his order pad.

The movie is Ira and Abby, and it's the second film treatment written by multi-talented (not to mention gorgeous) Jennifer Westfeldt, who stars as the titular Abby. Her first screenplay, Kissing Jessica Stein (2001), trod similar relationship minefield ground, though in that film the romance was of the sapphic variety.

Ira (Chris Messina, essaying a Woody Allen nebbish) thinks - in his comfortably well-off New Yorker way - that things can't get much worse. Then his analyst (David Margulies, as Dr. Friedman) tells him their analysis has run its course. "But this is long-term analysis!", complains Ira. "And it's been long enough," Dr. Friedman concludes, showing him the door.

Talk about pulling the rug out from under a fellow.

Then, quite by accident, Hurricane Abby blows into Ira's life; she's a hostess/membership salesperson at a health club, and in the course of her five-hour presentation (sounds improbable, so I guess you'll just have to see it) she compliments Ira on his facial structure, puts her ear to his bare belly and suggests that they just go ahead and get married - and, oh, if he's at all concerned about sexual compatibility she offers to close her office blinds so they can resolve that hanging issue. (He takes her up on it. Go figure.)

Abby's such a contrast to anyone in his previous experience, Ira is initially caught up in the rush of being with someone who's fun and spontaneous and refuses to let complications enter into the relationship equation. (Abby's list of demands for their marriage is a short one: she thinks they ought to have sex every day, regardless of what else is going on in their lives.) But Ira, in the final analysis, is a complicated guy, and when it comes to a clash between dogma and perceived reality, his dogma puts the bite on her karma at every turn.

Also at odds are the mismatched lovers' lifestyles, and here we're talking driven vs. dragged along behind the Buick. Take Abby's novel approach to a subway holdup: instead of keeping her head down (as Ira and the other occupants of the besieged car are content to do), Abby makes eye contact with the nervous gun-waving robber and engages him in conversation, asking how much money he needs. They settle on a number and Abby walks around the car accepting donations from the passengers; once the targeted figure is reached she delivers it to the nonplussed hoodlum, who quietly leaves the compartment at the next stop - after returning a few dollars overage. (Another contemporary heroine might have handled the situation this way).

Hovering about Ira and Abby like counter-charged cumulonimbuses are their two sets of parents. As mentioned, Ira's folks are uptight professional types (Judith Light as Arlene and Robert Klein as Seymour); Abby's mom and dad, by comparison, are denizens of a different planet. Played by Frances Conroy (as Lynne) and Fred Willard (as Michael), these two are every bit as fun-loving and accepting as Abby herself has grown up to be. (Like father and mother, like son and/or daughter, so it seems.) Making tentative gestures to bridge the gap between these two worlds - in imitation of Ira and Abby themselves - are Arlene and Michael, who take a real shine to each other as opposites are proven once again to attract.

Add to this soap-operatic plot thread the various ex-paramours of our two protagonists, along with a panoply of psycho-therapeutic professionals who come together in the final reel for an epic no-holds-barred analytical roundtable, and you'll have a feel for the scope of this well-played, wise as Hell and thoroughly entertaining little film.

Have a look at the trailer for a taste of what's in store.

DID SOMEONE SAY NEUROTIC?: "I have a fear of perishables: pets, produce..." - Ira to Abby

WE'RE WAITING: "Every good thing in life comes all of a sudden." - Michael (Abby's dad) to Ira

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?: "We can't go around feeling good all the time - it's just not done!" - Ira to Abby