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Remembering Anne Heche

I don't have thoughts on "Donnie Brasco" or the Harrison Ford rom-com, but Anne Heche did star in one of my all-time favorite movies, a movie I re-watch once per year--"Walking and Talking."


Heche is unforgettable to me for having played one deeply ordinary control freak, when she must have been still in her twenties. Heche is "Laura," a woman who isn't sure how she feels about her engagement. (Her fiance is Todd Field, the brain behind "In the Bedroom.") Laura begins flirting with other men, and she picks fights with Todd Field; for example, she really wants Field to have a certain mole biopsied. Laura's concern is nice, but it's also overbearing, and it begins to feel paranoid and even monstrous.

A fight gets out of control, and later, Field tries to apologize. He presents Laura with a small jewelry box--a mea culpa. But the box actually contains the tiny, biopsied mole. This is a terrible, clumsy joke--and it's also slightly mean--and the engagement crumbles, once again.

Anne Heche is a mess throughout the movie, struggling with tiny indignities: a bad makeup consultation, a misunderstanding about a ring, a series of mysterious prank phone calls. She is wildly irrational--she plans her wedding even after dumping her other half--and still she just keeps trudging along. It's so easy to connect with her.

We wouldn't have "Laura" without Anne Heche--so that's what I'm thinking about this weekend. I'm so glad Heche made this movie.



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  1. Adolfo ProfumoAugust 13, 2022 at 9:21 PM

    We say in my community: "May her neshama have an alyah" -- "May her soul be elevated" and, I would add, my she be sending us blessings from above now that her suffering on earth has ended and now that she is in The Light.

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