Boy Gets Girl

When co-worker Mercer proposes writing about journalist Theresa Bedell’s harrowing experience—her casual blind date has turned into a rapidly terrifying stalker—Theresa (Courvais) balks. “I’m not theoretical,” Theresa tells her colleague. “I’m real.” Half the time, however, Gilman treats her characters as just the opposite, as theory-tools maneuvered to make (granted, cogent) points about gender relations. Mercer observes that Theresa’s stalker acts just as Hollywood teaches men to act: Boy chases girl, boy gets girl. Such mouthpiece speeches lend Boy Gets Girl an educational-film tone.

But the other half of the time, Gilman writes with from-the-gut honesty. And what ultimately renders Theresa less theory, more reality is the flesh-and-blood performance of Courvais, completely credible as a driven, in-command magazine writer whose world turns topsy-turvy. When Theresa confides in a female cop about how being a woman means having to politely listen to men talk about themselves, Courvais lands that simple observation in the pit of your stomach. When Mercer tries to comfort a distraught Theresa, Courvais flinches at his touch—and so do we, so viscerally do we feel her distress. The supporting cast’s performances rate as little more than decent—with the fine exception of Len Bajenski as the crotchety adult film director Theresa interviews (to make more of Gilman’s points). Yet Courvais’s gripping performance, backed by solid work from director Scott and set designer Kevin Hagan, builds to an affecting portrait of a life utterly undone.—Novid Parsi