If Lucy Fell (1996)
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19% of critics liked it
(27 reviews) -
47% of users liked it
(5,187 ratings)
This vanity project from writer, director, and star Eric Schaeffer is a romantic comedy about a pair of New Yorkers with a suicide pact. Joe MacGonaughgill (Schaeffer) is a painter and teacher who has been spying for years on Jane (Elle Macpherson), the gorgeous woman who lives across the alley,… More This vanity project from writer, director, and star Eric Schaeffer is a romantic comedy about a pair of New Yorkers with a suicide pact. Joe MacGonaughgill (Schaeffer) is a painter and teacher who has been spying for years on Jane (Elle Macpherson), the gorgeous woman who lives across the alley, where she can be secretly observed undressing. Joe lives with Lucy Ackerman (Sarah Jessica Parker), a psychotherapist who's also his best friend. Suffering from her own relationship troubles with her boyfriend Dick (William Sage), Lucy is reminded of a long-ago pact she made with Joe: if neither is involved in a serious relationship by her rapidly approaching 30th birthday, they will commit suicide by jumping together off the Brooklyn Bridge. Then Jane comes to a show of Joe's artwork and he musters up the courage to ask her out, while Lucy begins dating Bwick Elias (Ben Stiller), an oddball artist who paints with his body parts. Only after Jane and Bwick turn out to be major disappointments do Joe and Lucy realize that they're perfect together -- and not in the platonic sense. Struggling independent filmmaker Schaeffer convinced Parker to take the female lead in If Lucy Fell when she hailed the cab he was driving. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Directed By
- Eric Schaeffer
- Written By
- Eric Schaeffer
- Genres
- Drama, Romance, Comedy
R,
- In Theaters
- Mar 8, 1996 Wide
- Studio
- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Critic Reviews
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Janet Maslin, New York Times
All coy grins and daffy mugging, Mr. Stiller plays the role as if aspiring to become the Elliott Gould of his generation. Compared with jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, that's a reasonable goal.
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Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle
If Lucy Fell is funnier more often than not, and when it's not being funny it's at least being strange. I'll take strange over what most major-distributor comedies are when they're not being funny.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
There is an affectation that I find particularly annoying, and that is when people choose to perform at a level below their natural intelligence.
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Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
It's airy, fluffy and ultimately uninteresting.
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Hal Hinson, Washington Post
If Lucy Fell should be a chore, and yet I kept catching myself having a good time.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Sarah Jessica Parker
as Lucy Ackerman
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Eric Schaeffer
as Joe MacGaunaughill
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Ben Stiller
as Bwick Elias
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Elle Macpherson
as Jane Linquist
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James Rebhorn
as Simon Ackerman
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Robert John Burke
as The Man
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Dominic Chianese
as Al
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Paul Greco
as Rene
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Bill Sage
as Dick
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David Thornton
as Ted
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Scarlett Johansson
as Emily
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Emily Anne Hart
as Eddy
