Ghost World

On the Sundance Channel recently I saw this 2001 movie starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Steve Buscemi. The movie was not a commercial success at the time of it's release but as Johansson has become one of the biggest stars in the world the movie has found an audience of film buffs.

The two actresses play Enid and Rebecca two girls graduating from high school. Both outsiders to the cool kids they have no plans for college but do have a long held dream of moving in together in their own apartment. In opening her diploma Enid finds out that she must take an art course over the summer to graduate, while not happy, how hard can an art class be.

Being cynical, biting teenage girls they in spotting a personal ad from a lonely man decide to place a response to the advertisement. Their goal is not nice, they wish to make fun of the man. Placing themselves at a table at the meeting place they watch the man wait for two hours and then leave. At this point these girls are not likable and their decision to follow him home is even worse. Still as Enid, played by Birch, leads the posse she appears to be having an inner conflict.

After all these girls are outsiders too and on some level Enid feels a connection to this middle aged man. Eventually Enid makes contact with the man, named Seymour, at a weekly used record auction he attends. A strange friendship develops. At the same time Rebecca, played by Johansson is not as enamored of Seymour and is looking forward to Enid getting a job so that the girls can move forward in their plan to get an apartment.

Life is a challenge for Enid. She struggles in the art class until she makes a found object project using something of Seymour's. The project is received with great enthrallment by the art teacher and she offers Enid a scholarship to an art college. At the same time Enid struggles to find a job. It seems as if her biting sarcasm, and her apparent inability to control it, makes her not a great candidate to work with the public.

Eventually Enid helps Seymour find a date. Her feelings of jealousy rise however when as a surprise to everyone the date turns out well and he starts spending time with his new friend. The new friend is naturally curious about why Seymour is such good friends with an odd girl just out of high school, half his age and attempts to discourage the relationship.

This is not a great movie. It is an odd movie with moments that illustrate the incredible loneliness so many of us feel. Buscemi is wonderful as Seymour, a man who accepts that he is a loser but is really no more and no less than more people than we all care to think about. Johannsen must have been in her late teens in this movie but even in a role that is not as defined in the film she stands out. Her voice, husky, her face plain and devoid of the model looks we see in today's version, there is still something captivating in her. I would never have picked her out as a future star from this performance but I would have remembered her for reasons that do not seem clear, she just stands out in an odd way, in a role not designed for her to do so.

In the end all of these people face indecision and bad decisions. A happy ending does not make itself readily apparent in this movie, still the ending seems fitting and one can hold out hope for our new friends. An interesting movie.