Easy (2004)

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CAST

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Jamie Harris MARGUERITE MOREAU

Mick McCabe BRIAN F. O'BYRNE

John Kalicharan NAVEEN ANDREWS

Laura Harris EMILY DESCHANEL

Sandy Clarke CAROLINE GOODALL

Martin Mars D.B. WOODSIDE

Lawrence Harris JOHN ROTHMAN

Tanya (Bookstore Owner) LANETTE WARE

Amber (Pregnant Office Manager) ANNA ALVIM

Geoffrey (Doctor) VINCENT ANGELL

Jackie (Suicidal Woman) ROXANNE HART

Paul (Laura's Husband) GILDART JACKSON

Tom (Vegan Sadomasochist) TOM TODOROFF

John's sister ANOJA DIAZ

Woman at W STEFANIE SHERK

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SUNDANCE PROGRAM NOTES

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      Lately, lighthearted stories about single urban chicks looking for love in a world of noncommittal guys flood our newsstands, televisions, and Cineplex screens. EASY confidently rises above the ranks of these romantic comedies, offering a less glossy, more penetrating vision of lovelorn life.

      Jamie Harris, portrayed with sparkling intelligence by actress Marguerite Moreau, is a neurotic, bright 25-year-old with a career naming peculiar consumer products. Though she gives them their identities, she's rather confused about her own. After dating a string of jerks, she's bewildered about whom to trust or how to find true intimacy. When two seemingly honorable men orbit around her,              Jamie must confront what she is most afraid of. As in Shakespearean comedies, writer/director Jane Weinstock's playful, nuanced script adroitly tosses competing desires up in the air, offering audiences the delicious pleasure of watching characters squirm and wriggle before everything falls into place.

      Weinstock constructs a romantic, but not romanticized, world, where sex is earthy and real, hair is unkempt, social norms are gloriously turned on their heads, and smart single girls have to work extra hard to get what they want. EASY is a moving and delightful foray into that most mysterious of all realms: contemporary relationships.
- Caroline Libresco, Sundance Film Festival

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Q+A WITH JANE WEINSTOCK

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How did you get the idea for the film?

I began with the main character and what she did. I wanted her to have a job we didn't always see in movies, so I was thinking about different professions. Then I had dinner with a friend who told me about someone he knew from college who was a product namer. That got me started.

What struck you about the idea of being a namer?

Well, it's about giving things an identity, and Jamie doesn't have much of an identity. She's 25, and she's searching for herself. I liked the way those two things seemed to fit.

Are the characters based on real people?

I wouldn't say they're based on real people, but they do have aspects of people I know and of myself. Parts are also just made up.

What pieces did you take from yourself?

There's plenty of me in both of the sisters. Laura wants to have an orderly life, and part of me wants that. Then another side of me likes chaos and danger and all of that, and that's Jamie. I didn' have a great track record with relationships before I met my husband.

Why does she have such bad taste in boyfriends?

Well, she doesn't think much of herself. Sex is the only thing she feels confident about, the only thing she's sure men will want from her. She's using sex to find love. She's kind of a wounded character, and that's what she's sorting out over the course of the movie.

Her sister seems to have escaped that self-doubt.

I don't know. She's not very happy either, but for different reasons. She became an architect, like her father; she married an architect; she did everything her father thought she should do. She was the perfect child, and Jamie was the bad girl. They both had a traumatic experience but had opposite responses to it.

The sex scenes are incredibly realistic.

It was definitely a choice I made, and I underlined it by not using any music in those scenes. I wanted the sex to be more like real sex and not some kind of romanticized moment where you see an arm, a leg, a thigh, and then it's over. Also, I like scenes which change tone in surprising ways, and I wanted that for the sex scenes.

What films influenced the style of EASY?

I love the French New Wave directors of the 60's, especially Godard and Truffaut. They have a lot of spontaneity and energy and at the same time great style. I also love Cassavetes. It's amazing how real his characters seem.

EASY is unusual in the sense that the characters are multi-ethnic. Why was that important to you?

LA is a racially mixed city, and I thought EASY should show that. I also thought casting African Americans and an Anglo Indian in roles that are usually white could subtly address the issue of racial stereotyping. 

What initially attracted you to Marguerite Moreau for the role of Jamie?

I always saw the character as contradictory; she's very sexual and at the same time, she' a tomboy. Marguerite has that combination. She also has this great playfulness and sense of humor, and depth. And she's very intelligent.

What do you think happens to Jamie and Mick after the film is over?

The song at the end of the movie is "Nothing Is for Sure". I hope they can make it work, but maybe they won't . Jamie's better but she's not completely transformed. And even if she were, I don't think any relationship is for sure. 

There's a lot of art throughout the film. How important was that to the story?

I used architecture and art to help tell the story. I wanted what was on the characters' walls to reflect who they were. Jamie's walls have post cards and all sorts of stuff. As opposed to her sister and her father, who both have perfectly placed abstract art. My husband is an artist, and I used to write art criticism, so that's very much my world. I used a lot of art by my friends.

Who are some of the artists you used?

There's a doll's house by Laurie Simmons. In the bookstore there's a work by Barbara Kruger. When Jamie and Laura go to the art gallery they're looking at photographs by Malerie Marder. The photograph they're looking at is actually Malerie and her sister naked. I also use a photo series of men and women with mustaches by Catherine Opie. They're about male and female identity, and I thought that tied in nicely with Jamie's issues around identity.  

Both of your male characters are not American. Was that intentional?

For months after I finished the script I had no idea where I got the Irish thing. When I was casting, I kept thinking, I don't even know anyone Irish. Then I realized I once had an Irish psychiatrist. Classic, huh? Also, I went out with a lot of European guys, so I guess I was sort of replaying that time in my life.

Why did you make both of the guys so appealing?

It was very important to me that the guys not be bad guys. In most romantic triangle movies, one guy's bad. As soon as you realize that, you know what's going to happen, the woman's going to end up with the good one. I didn't want to be that predictable. I also didn't want to have an anti-male thing going. I just wanted them to be two different guys. She could have ended up with either of them.

This was your first feature. What was it like your first day on the set?

I became overwhelmingly weak when I arrived at the first location. I had to go outside and sit on the sidewalk. Then my dear producer came out and comforted me. After that, I managed to go back inside and rise to the occasion.

What was the hardest part for you?

Well, we shot the movie in 21 days at many locations. I'm someone who is used to making decisions rather carefully, and I had to make 5000 decisions every day. In some ways it was awful, and in some ways it was very liberating.