Browse: Home / The Shadow of Lifetime looms over KELLY & CAL

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Year of the Month: Joseph Walls on BROADCAST NEWS
  • Enlace Almuerzo: SALOME (1978)
  • Meh
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of March 1987
  • Year of the Month: Aaron Clausen on THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER

The Shadow of Lifetime looms over KELLY & CAL

Posted By Julius Kassendorf on September 23, 2014 in Reviews | 2 Responses

The designation of Lifetime Original Movies is possibly single-handedly responsible for the ghettoization of the woman’s picture. The woman’s picture is now seen as the LIFETIME picture, especially if it has a focus on a single female and her struggling with her emotions. The problem with this label is that it doesn’t allow for the complexities of a woman’s turmoil to enter into the mainstream without being ridiculed out of the theater.

Kelly & Cal is ripe for the label Lifetime Original Movie, and will probably be screening on that channel in the future. Kelly, played by the ever-talented Juliette Lewis, is a new mother whose husband, Josh (Josh Hopkins), works late as an advertising executive. She has recently been transplanted from the big city, where she was a riot grrrl, to a big bolshy suburb so they could be closer to her husband’s seemingly-Stepford-esque family. Depressed and lost, especially without Josh to emotionally support her, she befriends local teenage pervert and new paraplegic Cal, who has been spying on her breastfeeding in her window.

Writer Amy Lowe Starbin and director Jen McGowan developed the characters so that they would echo each other’s problems. Kelly recently lost her identity through marriage and motherhood. Cal lost his identity through a car accident. Josh and Cal were both artists; Josh went commercial while Cal lost his fine motor skills. Kelly and Josh both have fundamental deep issues with how they see each other and their position within each other’s lives. These constant echoes of themes and replications of issues raise Kelly & Cal from just being another Lifetime Original Movie.

My biggest nitpicky problem with Kelly & Cal was that I couldn’t tell if they lived next door to each other or blocks away. Most of the time, they seem to live next door, but the houses don’t seem like they even belong in the same neighborhood. This wouldn’t be a problem if not for the spying that provides the third act momentum.

Additionally, Kelly & Cal never really addresses the central skeeviness at the heart of this film. Cal is a perv, and his first come-on to Kelly is “Nice tits.” Because somebody is looking at new mom Kelly in a sexual way, she’s attracted to the perverted energy even if she denies that is what she wants. The perversity of an older woman with a younger man is only addressed in the inappropriateness in passing. The question that looms over the film is whether emotional cheating is the same as physical cheating, and the answer seems to be in the affirmative. Kelly lies and carries on like she’s having a big affair, even though they never do consummate their relationship.

In the end, Kelly & Cal is a fine actor’s showcase for both Juliette Lewis and Jonny Weston, despite Jonny Weston’s miscasting because he’s too old for the part (having a 26 year old play as an 18 year old really takes the edge off the molesty vibe the movie ought to have). The search for identity, the echoing of themes, and a screenplay that usually eschews cheap sentimental pabulum for Gen X detachment, cause Kelly & Cal to be better than its subject matter would usually be.


As a side note that doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the review, Weston was hired because he and Lewis have an electric chemistry that translates well on screen. But, I wonder if McGowan couldn’t have found an actual paraplegic actor who could have played the part just as well. It’s just a curiosity that ties in to the theme of casting people who are part of the mainstream to play people who aren’t.

 

Posted in Reviews | Tagged drama, Jen McGowan, Kelly & Cal

About the Author

Julius Kassendorf

Julius Kassendorf is the founder of The-Solute, and previously founded The Other FIlms and Project Runaways in 2013. There, he dabbled in form within reviews to better textualize thought processes about the medium of film.

Previously, he has blogged at other, now-defunct, websites that you probably haven’t heard of, and had a boyfriend in Canada for many years. Julius resides in Seattle, where he enjoys the full life of the Seattle Film Community.

Julius’ commanding rule about film: Don’t Be Common. He believes the worst thing in the world is for a film to be like every other film, with a secondary crime of being a film with little to no ambition.

Related Posts

Year of the Month – Early Summer→

The Solute Book Club: If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler… – An Introduction→

MISBEHAVIN’: THE DRAMATIC COMEDY OF SUCCESSION & THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES→

Men (Derogatory): THE BABYSITTER (1995)→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    31125 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    26578 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    19078 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    18462 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Yvonne, or: CASABLANCA In One Character and Three Scenes

    9742 views / Posted August 21, 2014
  • Year of the Month: Joseph Walls on BROADCAST NEWS

    July 7, 2022 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • You'd think Isaac could have run away faster with those futuristic sneakers.

    Enlace Almuerzo: SALOME (1978)

    July 7, 2022 / The Ploughman
  • the cry of my people

    Meh

    July 6, 2022 / Gillianren
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of March 1987

    July 6, 2022 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • Year of the Month: Aaron Clausen on THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER

    July 6, 2022 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott

Last Tweets

  • Year of the Month: Joseph Walls on BROADCAST NEWS - https://t.co/p5orDe5b1M, 2 hours ago
  • Today's Lunch Link - watch Pedro Almodovar's 16mm short SALOME (1978). https://t.co/OZmbZKj1PJ, 5 hours ago
  • Meh - https://t.co/Xq6zeybYdT, 23 hours ago

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!