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Cynthia seemingly has no reason to be single other than the fact that she’s a bitter, vindictive harpy who can’t stand to see other people happy when she’s not. For this she blames Ann, and uses it as an excuse to ruin her sister’s life. This, too, is off putting, but the witty repartee between the two girls is captivating, and the fact that San Giacomo earned a Golden Globe nomination in her first feature role should tell you something about how convincing she is. Cynthia is a volatile woman and the venom, anger and sadness which she is required to display in rapid fire succession would be a tall order for anyone but like MacDowell, San Giacomo seems born for this role. But, the most interesting character in the film is yet to come and around him revolves the film’s central concept.

Graham Dalton (James Spader) is an eccentric drifter who lives out of his car, wears an unruly mullet and walks around in denim jeans and black, long sleeved cotton shirts in hundred degree weather. He has returned to his childhood home to tie up loose ends from a long gone past life. An old college friend of John’s, he drops in for a few days while he looks for an apartment and immediately strikes up a friendship with Ann. Graham’s inquisitive nature and quirky manner of speech mirror Ann’s peculiarities to the degree that their conversations soon resemble extended secular confessionals.

I can tell you from experience that when two people find it so immediately easy to be open, it foreshadows both wonderful things and wonderfully weird things. Graham and Ann are no exception to this. Despite looking like one, Graham is less an artist than he is a tortured introvert who desperately requires the company of others in order to inform them how much he’d rather be alone. And as he draws Ann into his world, he pulls her family in with her. Cynthia, always eager to interfere with anything that brings Ann contentment, notes her sister’s fascination with this man and makes it her goal to seduce him. John, who tends to treat people like furniture until he wants something from them, suddenly becomes possessive of his relationships when he discovers Graham’s influence. As all four – the doormat, the philanderer, the exhibitionist and the brooder – enter orbit together they discover that their problems and personal shortcomings are not as different as they appear to be on the surface.

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