All the Real Girls

REVIEW
Love ain't easy. And neither is the path the characters wander in Green's spectacular second feature, All the Real Girls. Taking a few unconventional turns at chronicling a young relationship, Green gets to the heart of young love and all its highs and lows. Schneider stars as Paul, a Southern small-town dweller who has experienced many a girl, just not in any meaningful way until he falls for Noel (the spectacular Deschanel), a young woman who is also taking her first crack at love. Several vignettes in the midst of a golden leaf-drenched Autumn show the excitement of a budding relationship and the two leads perform it with naturalistic simplicity. The film begins with the couple's relationship in progress and we are allowed to peek in on their journey, their joys and their mistakes, relating them to our own ideas about love. Green paints this portrait in a stylized and intimate way, staging his characters in positions and atmospheres that oft-times seem to only exist within the frame, yet using the kind of unstagey dialogue that more drifts out of one's mouth, rather than being forcibly spoken. All the Real Girls stands as an alternatively beautiful romantic gem that doesn't play dumb for its audience, nor does it supply all the perfect answers to love's most difficult questions.