Mystic Pizza

Mystic Pizza is not a terribly well known film. If it is famous for anything, it is its role in being a stepping stone in the careers of Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor, Vincent D’Onofrio, as well as the film debut of Matt Damon. This reputation is not entirely unearned, as the movie’s small, intimate indie drama is competently made but not dazzling enough to turn many heads.

Functionally, it is a coming of age story that follows three similarly aged young women as they grow into adulthood in a small, New England fishing town. While the girls are coworkers at the titular pizza place, each of their stories are generally separate from the others, though they are all linked by a thematic exploration of adulthood through the lens of love and romance. This can be a gateway to larger themes, such as class, but always explored through the ways in which those larger themes directly affect the characters in their pursuit of meaningful relationships and a stable future. Since all three girls work at the same pizza restaurant, their shared work acts as a nexus point for their largely separate romantic stories to intersect, giving the characters the opportunity to give advice, hear grievances, or inadvertently hinder each other’s efforts. This provides a cohesion to the story that might feel lacking if the three stories were just the members of a loose friendship.

I found the film hard to watch. Not because it is bad, it is perfectly fine as a movie, but because the storylines each felt very cliche and predictable. This is not an entirely fair assessment, as a few times the cliche I thought we were headed for turned into something else entirely, but that something else often ended up feeling like just a different tired cliche. The movie deals a lot with romance, and both romance and coming of age stories often deal with genre conventions and cliches that are inherent in the form; there are only so many ways one can twist the boy meets girl, they fight, they get back together formula and keep it entertaining. However, freshness is found in their construction. I can watch When Harry Met Sally over and over again and the fact that I know exactly what is going to happen matters little when the moments that get you there are so funny, relatable, and/or resonant. On the other hand, I can watch Mystic Pizza for the first time and be tired of it two thirds of the way through because it feels like the magic trick is ruined by my ability to see the mechanisms inside the machine turning at each step.

The performances are the real standout here. The three central girls are a delight and it isn’t hard to see how they might go on to Hollywood it girl, an indie darling, and staple television actress, even if those career trajectories are not created equal. Each one, in their own way, really does their best to get you beyond the cliche nature of the story and deeply invested in their story, rooting for their best outcome.

That being said, and possibly driven by hindsight bias, Julia Roberts is the standout performance of the movie. It isn’t necessarily that she inhabits her role better or that she brings more subtlety and believability to the role, though she is no slouch in those departments, it is that the camera just seems to love her. She is, relative to the rest of the mostly up and coming cast, electric when she is on screen. Her piece of the story quickly becomes the most engrossing simply because she is so good on screen and it makes you care the most about her third of the movie. Each girl has her moment, but Julia Roberts’ moments shine brightest.

An awkwardly predictable story buoyed by sparks of acting genius from a great cast on their way to making a name for themselves, including future Hollywood elite, is a hard thing to rate. Is it good because of the performances, the most important part of carrying an intimate film of this nature? Is it bad because the cliche and predictable nature of the film left me cold? Is the sum greater than the parts? For me, I don’t think so. I found myself bored and slightly checked out a few times during the length of the film. However, not everyone will feel the same way.

Would Recommend: If you’re curious what Julia Roberts was doing before Pretty Woman.

Would Not Recommend: If you are looking for an indie drama with real meat on its bones.