Word: johansson
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Amanda (Scarlett Johansson) and Laurel (Aleksa Palladino), according to convention hereafter referred to as "Manny" and "Lo," survive through shoplifting, house-breaking-and-sleeping-in, and the liberal use of their deceased mother's station wagon. When Lo gets undeniably pregnant, the spunky pair adds a bigger crime to their misdemeanors and kidnap a staid ex-nurse (Mary Kay Place) incongruously behind the counter at one of those sickeningly precious baby supplies stores. They then hole up at an abandoned country house. Barring some frenzied running around at the end, most of the film takes place there amidst woodsy surroundings...
Thereafter, things very gradually slide downhill, except for the introduction of Elaine, the ex-nurse and one or two other details. The polite reason to give would be that Johansson and Palladino play their characters a little too thoroughly...
...Johansson's Manny, this is less of a problem. With her little eye, Manny asks broadly perceptive questions worthy of a Barbara Walters interview: studying Elaine's determinedly clinical, uneasy manner, Manny declares that she doesn't think Elaine had a real family, did she. She's right, and it's a gold star for her to add to her accomplishments in admonishing Lo for her poor prepartem behavior or justly defending Elaine...
...intentionally created two portraits of difficult development in childhood, at two stages, one on the cusp of adolescence, the other in the throes of it: then we find ourselves more interested in the motivations and reasons behind each character's current state, more so than her actions. Or are Johansson and Palladino just stuck in their respective modes, with Palladino especially mixing playacting with the over-acting of adolescent histrionics...
Basically, whatever the ending, this is a film that is difficult to finish properly. We enjoy the snapshot we get of the itinerant young women's lives, precisely because it's so expressive in and of itself. But when Krueger draws out the story, it's everything Johansson and Palladino can do to continue carrying their thorough portrayals without becoming grating. "Manny and Lo" belongs to the ranks of movies that offer more pleasure in the moment's fantasy, in the little package of an idea, than in its fully realized execution...