Mandy (Paula Marcenaro Solinger), an unsuccessful children's book author, works at a small bookstore, which seems to be the only place in town that still carries her books ... and one day, Harvey (Jonathan Stottman), single dad, tuckdriver and wannabe stand-up comedian, stops by to buy one of her books for his daughter (Kenna Hardin), and Mandy, a hopeless romantic, makes him ask her to go out with him. The date goes kind of crazy because first she makes him break into a home to steal a bottle of champagne, later he's attacked by one of her former lovers (Spencer Korcz), but ultimately, the two of them have tons of fun and agree to meet again - and they soon become a couple.

But there's something odd about Mandy, she seems to have a loose grasp on reality, and sometimes when things don't turn out the way they ought to, she "makes" them work - using whatever it takes. Like when she's fired from her job for stealing money and merchandise, she has sex with one of her colleagues (R. Wayne Hogue jr) and later accuses him of rape and having forced her to steal what she did. Also above-mentioned former lover "disappears" during a romantic boat ride, and later even Mandy's former boss (Chase Dudley) "goes missing", but not before signing over the store to her ...

For Harvey, Mandy's stories fail to compute after some time, so he hires a private eye (Keith Nicholson), and he digs up more than Harvey would ever found possible. But it seems he's caught with Mandy, whether he likes it or not ...

Marvelous Mandy is a darkly enjoyable movie that really doesn't let on what it's about until you're already sucked in to then twist and turn into directions not thought possible. So the movie basically opens like a "magical" romantic comedy about two hapless beings of the opposite sex searching Mr and Mrs Right, respectively, and finding them in each other ... to then veer off into something much more sinister, that's mostly tarnished with that kind of black humour that makes you choke rather than love. Now add to that the film's colour chart that for the most part feels a bit off and unreal, a directorial effort that stays away from spectacle to give the story space to breath, and a great cast, and you've got yourself a really cool movie!

And if this has gotten you at all interested, the movie's available here on DVD and Blu-ray: LCFilmsOnline.com - and on Vimeo on demand at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/marvelousmandy

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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