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Synopsis
Jennifer (Leelee Sobieski) is seventeen, just graduated from high school in a ceremony she made certain not to attend. With her multiple piercings, all-black wardrobe and frequent cemetery visits, Jennifer works hard to keep the world at a distance. She has devised her own individual goth/punk disguise to protect the lonely girl inside. Yet her cynicism is only skin deep, masking a deep sense that she is not worth loving. Fascinated with death because she is afraid of life, Jennifer is more innocent and more in need than she would ever dare let on.
Randall (Albert Brooks) stands in complete contrast -- a precise, well-ordered man of forty-nine who runs a conservative men's clothing store in an upscale shopping mall. Randall keeps everything under control. He lives alone. A magazine subscription is about the biggest personal commitment he will venture to make. He is unfailingly polite and carefully tailored -- a "nice man" to the core. Yet underneath all the protective coloring of middle class comfort, Randall is deeply afraid, nursing secret regrets about the past and hidden terror of the future. His loneliness is awesome.
Each of them long-term prisoners of their own highly developed emotional armor, this wildly dissimilar pair should never meet, never connect at all. Yet one day, after initially rejecting her job application, Randall observes that Jennifer is still sullenly planted in front of his shop window. Against his better judgment, Randall offers her a stockperson job, if and only if she goes home and removes “the facial jewelry.” A bit surprised at the decision herself, Jennifer takes him up on the offer.
Jennifer soon discovers that Randall is different from most all the adults she has encountered in her life. He tends to tell the truth, and he has a well-honed sense of his own limitations. Randall pays real attention to her. They share more and more of their personal interests, and in the process, begin to open up about their mutual fears. Jennifer fantasizes about what Randall might be like as her lover, but in the coffeehouse she frequents, it is assumed he is her dad.
When Jennifer makes the critical step of getting her own apartment, it is Randall who is there to offer support. She finds herself jealous of Patty (Mary Kay Place), the warm and kind woman Randall's own age who seems all too interested in his well-being. Yet Jennifer also begins to realize how many secrets Randall is keeping from her. It just does not make sense to Jennifer that a man she is growing to care about, the one man she dares to trust, can remain so tightly wrapped in his own isolation, so shut off from her. Something has to snap.
Piecing together the evidence and deeply disturbed by some of the discoveries she makes, Jennifer determines to find the true source of his solitude. Her mission takes her on a trip out of Los Angeles, tracing clues about Randall's past back to Arizona.
There she meets a handsome young man, Randy (Desmond Harrington), whose cynical anger at the world seems to closely parallel her own. The two soon discover that they have something they share that surpasses attitude. By the time Jennifer is ready to head back to Los Angeles, she has convinced Randy to accompany her. Driven by a new purpose, Jennifer grows increasingly passionate about making connections. Family takes on new meaning. She becomes the catalyst for a new family that is being born -- one strong enough to deal with loss and change.
Source: About.com.
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