3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Overlooked, Under Appreciated Film, April 6, 2007
This is one of my very favorite movies. It has an equal mix of humor and seriousness. Theresa Randle is an amazing actress, and she shows this in taking on her various incarnations during the movie.
At the beginning we meet a very beautiful woman who is sure she is meant to be an actor but is very unsure about herself as a woman and a person. A reading with Quentin Tarantino goes awry when she realizes there is nudity involved. She hestitantly goes through with it but quicly runs out. This doesn't bode well with her agent or her acting coach.
Her acting coach sees that she has a long way to go in acting ... and in growing up. She wishes her well as she drops her.
Looking for work, she stumbles upon a phone sex operator job. At first she is unsure about it, and is visibly stunned that not only is there a racial aspect to the job, and to the whole idea of it.
While her co-workers entertain themselves in other ways, to help in getting caught up with the job, Girl 6 doesn't and eventually becomes way too personally involved with clients. The first one is "Bob Regular."
During all this, her ex-husband tries to court her, store owners harass her thinking because she is a fantasy operator she's a prostitute as well.
Back to Bob Regular, a meeting is to take place, and she's warned by a friend/co-worker not to get involved, but she does it anyway.
She waits. She waits. She waits some more; puttiing her job on the line as she is late for work.
Finally, a man starts walking towards her; she calls out to him, but he looks at her with indifference and keeps going. Myself and others included feel that this WAS indeed Bob, but because she wasn't white (which is the pre-requisite for the operators's characters to be) he just kept walking. Or, it was just a stranger.
In any case, she is distraught and her plans of acting have been all but forgotten; claiming that she IS acting by being a phone sex operator.
As a result, she keeps working and working and working. Getting burnt out, and finally enforced to take a leave of absence.
She needs to work ... money, or just because she's getting hooked ... she decides to take a job that was previously offered by a character played by Madonna. A "home girl," Girl 6 does the phone sex job at home.
Getting further and further into the job, and giving out her personal number and address to clients is taking over; her friends don't see her, they only hear her.
It isn't until her life is threatened that she realizes she needs to break free and to change her life, and pursue the dream she had before: ACTING.
The film ends with her leaving for Hollywood and reading the same piece that she did at the beginning. Another director asks her to undress, but this time, she is determined to stay true to herself, and after giving an impressive reading, leaves. She is now sure of herself, her abilities and she has grown up and matured, and the audience noticeably sees this.
Theresa Randle does an impressive job in her role as the main character, and we learn to laugh, love, and appreciate this woman. We see her at her weakest, and we see her at her finest.
We only learn her real name at the end of the movie, which has been criticized, but this shows us that not only do we have to learn who she is, but so did she. When she hears her name, she expresses how "she likes the sound of it." It took the whole movie for her to truly find herself, and so it is finally complete when we hear it also.
Spike Lee acts in it as her roommate and friend, and does an excellent job doing so, and in directing. He uses various film techniques: colors, parody flashbacks at characters Girl 6 is inspired by, and all these really flesh out the mood or level of severity that the character is in. We are given humor to laugh as the character laughs, and to keep things from getting too morbid, but when he wants us to know things are serious, Lee ensures that we do indeed know that.
Throughout the movie, we also meet a girl through the news on t.v.; a girl who is innocent and sweet, who is injured severely, and we gain a parallel with Girl 6 herself.
Girl 6 watches the news and discovers a young girl has fallen in an elevator shaft and is in critical condition. At this point, she connects with the girl, but so do we soon see that the character really has connected.
The camera moves through the elevator shaft as if we were falling, and this effect continues at different points as Theresa Randle's character begins to fall also.
Eventually, Girl 6 and the girl meet in person which is also a link in recovery and strength.
Again, the type of photography in the movie; the colors, the realism/surrealism changes with the moods and degrees of the main character's development, and this really help to bring out the humor or seriousness of the piece.
Before she leaves for Hollywood, there is a scene where telephones of all shapes and colors fall smashing to the ground. This truly shows that Girl 6 isn't "Girl 6" any longer, but a grown woman who has conquered her fears, her addictions, and is ready to face what life has to bring her from then on.
Madonna and other notable actors/celebrities are featured throughout and they add their own distinctive personality to the film.
In conclusion, "Girl 6" is a movie is a dark comedy, a serious comedy; a mature movie offering laughter, tears, fear, and joy. It isn't for everyone, but if you're a fan of Theresa Randle, Spike Lee, Madonna, or just want something different ... something that has some weight to it, or some twisted humor, then this is definitely for you.
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