Flannel Pajamas | Review

Drama is a barometer for relationship highs and lows.

The film’s title evokes fluffy pillows, comfy slippers and the joys of comfort, but once the honeymoon stage of a relationship is over, Flannel Pajamas is about as comfortable as soggy clothes after a rafting trip. Adult minded, raw and honest, Jeff Lipsky’s drama ventures into territory that fans of Bergman might find entertaining, thus ensuring that a post-Sundance theatrical wide release is near impossible.

Lipsky’s screenplay focalizes on the whole nine yards of the seven-year itch – from the beginning stages of a relationship to the route most traveled with marriage and then to the eventual disintegration before the baby carriage. You’d never find an agent of Julia Roberts suggesting such material as a career move, but actors Justin Kirk and Julianne Nicholson take the commendable plunge to depths rarely visited in onscreen couple-hood – the naked truth couldn’t be more emphasized.

Though Kirk is the Jewish boy and Nicholson plays the Catholic girl, this is a New York story about folks that have penthouse views and Hampton-like holidays and white picket fence, 2 kids and a dog aspirations. Rather than pin-point the opposing backgrounds as a source of dissolution, Lipsky brings a stimulating discourse that shows how people drown the ones they claim they love the most and how harboring resentment from the past aids in stirring about matters. Such discussion material is hardly addressed in film and here it is provoked by trying to make concessions, fights, and feeling wounded. Sequences last a little longer than the norm – Lipsky is curious to see how couples may interact before and after extreme passion and fights that bring up a storm, unfortunately the two-hour run time makes dooms day landing especially harsh and draining.

Truly low budget, both aesthetically and stylistically plain, Lipsky’s point of view is via a no-frills approach and such a stripped down template is offered in the stripped down performances. Tattooed with freckles, Nicholson displays all the vulnerability of a character who is not only self conscious about her body image but she keeps deep issues beneath the surface. This is a heavy conversation piece that could have benefited from some non-dialogue acting. The approach allows for a convincing Moral of the story – always listen to your girlfriends who question your choice in guys. Moral of the film – its refreshing to see two actors really get into character and to feel a screenplay that comes across as personal as this one.

January 24 – Sundance 2006.

Rating 3 stars