Movies That Settle: Singles

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Singles

I missed the 30 year anniversary for this one, but I maybe saw it in 1993. Does that count?

When Cameron Crowe’s Singles was released in 1992, I was a spry, high school upstart who thought everything meant something. Remember those days?

In fact, Crowe had set his original film in 1984 in Phoenix. He retooled it after the death of Andrew Wood, lead singer of the band Mother Love Bone (who I think appear on the soundtrack, which is amazing and you should listen to it today), in 1990 when he began noticing that the Seattle music scene was coming together to deal with the loss. Weirdly enough, many of the bands featured in the movie hit it big by the time the movie came out, but when the production started in 1991, the Seattle sound was not as big a deal as it became. And if you happen to be under the age of 35, you may not have any idea what I’m talking about. But you know who Pearl Jam is, right? Ok, good.

Whether or not you know or care about the bands featured in the movie, Singles is still a fun look at young love and life in the early 90’s. In fact, Crowe was approached by Warner Brothers about adapting it into a series, but he turned it down. He later read in the trades that David Crane and Marta Kauffman were developing a series centering around six young single people living in the big city, and immediately called his lawyer to try and stop it. They failed, and of course, that show became a small hit you may know as Friends. Apparently, Crowe’s mom always derided him for saying no to the original offer. Mothers know, eh?

Even more than the historical significance of Singles, there’s a lot more at play than just a comical look at 90’s subculture. The movie mostly follows Campbell Scott’s Steve relationship with Kyra Sedgwick’s Linda, and Bridget Fonda’s “relationship” with Matt Dillon’s Cliff. There is also Debbie Hunt, who we are told “consumes men instead of food,” and Steve’s sidekick, Bailey, who just kind of disappears at some point in the movie. You may look at that as a statement on what often happens to sidekicks when the main character meets their significant other, but is probably just an oversight on Crowe’s part.

Steve, Janet, Cliff and Debbie all live in the same apartment complex, and represent different strata of society. Steve is essentially the main character, and unlike a lot of romantic leads from the 90’s is actually interesting, because he was the cool college DJ, and at the start of the film is working in an office on the city’s gridlock problem. From the conversations that he has with his friends, and the talking to the camera that he does (and other characters do, too. Was it a new thing then? I don’t really remember), we learn that he has had many girlfriends, but for one reason or another, none of them stuck around. It might be due to the advice he was given by his father who left his mom when Steve was eight: “Have fun. Stay single.”   

He still has some street cred, though, as his first real date with Linda is at his apartment, doing her laundry and listening to records. People who met their spouse on an app may find their whole relationship quaint, in fact. They meet at a club, and he is able to score her number, despite the fact that she is hesitant because she was basically ghosted (well the 90’s version of “ghosted”) by a handsome Swedish boy who told her that his Visa had expired and he had to leave the country. He gave her a ring to remember him by, and she gave him her garage door opener, which was basically the most meaningful thing she had. She then saw him at a club days later with another girl. Steve calls and has to twist her arm a little, but is able to convince her to meet him during her lunch break for some… water. They eventually do hook up, after Steve shows up on her doorstep and utters one of the greatest “lines” in romantic comedy history: “I was just nowhere near your neighborhood.” 

What follows are a lot of the normal relationship bugaboos; whether he can refer to her as his “girlfriend,” the fact that he left his t-shirt at her place and she is seen cleaning the toilet with it, the significance of him giving her his garage door opener. Eventually, Linda finds herself late for her period and Steve goes to buy every pregnancy test that the store has. In an unbelievably memorable performance, Jeremy Pivens plays the clerk and recognizes Steve from his college days, and gushes over how great a DJ he was, loudly reminiscing about Steve's legendary mixing of Public Enemy and Elvis Costello. Steve is at first amused, then gets a look of second-hand embarrassment on his face. Pivs invites him to a party that night, but Steve refuses. When Jeremy finally looks down to see exactly what he is scanning after several minutes, he somberly looks at Steve and says, “Of course, you may be busy.”

As the two debate about the prospect of becoming parents when they are barely even in a relationship, they get into a car accident and lose the baby. Linda then takes a planned work trip which puts her out at sea for several months, and the pair drifts apart. Steve goes into a tailspin, as his gridlock solution is shot down by the Mayor (Tom Skerritt, who was actually a Seattle resident.) Even after Linda returns, the two remain apart. He even tries to put the moves on Janet, who rightfully tells him that they are better off as neighbors, but does give him a secret knock in case he ever wants to talk. Steve then drunk dials (which was a thing back then, although less prominent, because he has to use a pay phone at the club) Linda and leaves a message on her answering machine professing his love and screaming over the music, “YOU BELONG WITH ME!” Unfortunately, she comes home to find that her answering machine has eaten the tape (again, that happened back then), but pauses, feeling that perhaps there was something important on there. She eventually goes to Steve’s place and, by sheer coincidence, uses the secret knock that Janet gave him. When he opens the door to see it’s actually her, she uses his, “I was just nowhere near your neighborhood” line. Since he assumes that she had gotten his drunken message, he asks what took her so long, and her awesome response is that she was stuck in traffic. They embrace and most likely lived happily ever after. Or not, who knows? But it was a great end to their story.

Which brings us to Janet and Cliff, the other “couple” in the film. I keep using quotes because, although Janet is obviously enraptured by Cliff, when we first see them together, he tells her that he is seeing other people. She responds slyly, “You don’t fool me” and he gives her another one of the best lines in moviedom: “Janet, I could not be fooling you less.”

Fortunately, Janet has a good friend in Steve that she can confide in. One day, he asks her what she is looking for in a partner, and after rattling off a long list of qualifications, declares that she had whittled it down to someone who says “Gesundheit” when she sneezes, but she prefers “God bless you,”

Eventually, Janet has the Ah-Ha moment that anyone in a bad relationship should have. She fakes a sneeze right next to him and, instead of saying, “Gesundheit” or “God bless you,” he hands her a tissue and demands that he not get her sick. She immediately wonders “What am I doing?” and breaks up with him, and starts enjoying life as a single person. Cliff, meanwhile, begins to realize what a good thing he wasted and tries to win her back. He even installs a new stereo in her car, but when he turns the volume way up, it shatters her windows. It’s a fun role reversal to see Cliff embarrassed a little bit. As George Costanza would say, she has “hand” in the relationship now.

In the final scene of the movie, Janet and Cliff are alone in the elevator and he compliments her hat. She sneezes (for real) and he says, “God bless you.” After a moment, she realizes what just happened. They turn to each other and kiss. As the music comes up and the camera soars over the apartment complex, Cliff’s voice can be heard asking, “Does everybody go through this?” Janet, either wrongly or sarcastically, responds, “Nah, I think just us.” It’s most likely a throwaway line that Crowe just needed for the last line of the movie, but I want to believe it says something about how Janet has grown throughout the movie.

First, a side note on Janet, or more accurately, on the actor who played her, Bridget Fonda, daughter of Peter Fonda and granddaughter of Henry Fonda, and all around beautiful person. Now, when I first saw this movie, I didn’t know anything about her family tree, but there was something about her that just made me ga-ga. I went out and rented some of her other movies after this, and I think I really wanted to believe that there was a lot of Janet in her. And maybe I was right. After all, she did have a thing for musicians. I mean, she ended up marrying Danny Elfman. Isn’t it great when two amazing people find each other?

When we first meet Janet Livermore in Singles, she tells us that she is 23, and when I first saw this, I thought she was so old. I also couldn't wait to be 23 (or at least 21), but still, at 16, I thought I would never be 23. Janet obviously thought so, too, as she tells us that she thought that people would be living on Mars and she would have 5 kids by that age. This is how you think when you’re young and dumb, but I think it’s also an example of how things have changed since the early-90’s. There were expectations that you had to be doing something by that age. I didn’t necessarily know what I would be doing, but that’s what college was for, to figure it all out. The point is, Janet was speaking for a lot of us.

Janet also says that, at 23, time was running out to do something bizarre, because by 25, “Bizarre becomes… immature.” I guess this depends on what your definition of “immature” is, but 25 seems way off to be too old to be immature. I mean, I’m in my 40’s, and I went to a New Year’s Eve party that was 80’s-themed, recently attended a birthday party where we all went bowling, and I play a Star Wars video game pretty much every day. Is this immature? I don’t think so, but maybe it is. I don’t really know what else I should be doing, but when I think about Janet declaring that “bizarre” would be “immature” by the age of 25, I might have shot past “immature” and gone back around to “bizarre.” Or maybe even “lame.”

It’s really just all about perspective. Janet’s last stab at “bizarre” was breast enhancement surgery, until she rightly realized that she didn’t want to do it for Cliff. In the end, she is the one who counsels Steve on his love life, and even puts him in his place after he kisses her and says that in an alternate universe, they are “probably a scorching couple,” and she tells him that in this one, they are neighbors. She also gives the plastic surgeon (Bill Pullman) some advice on how he should have fun and that a lot of women would love to go out with the handsome doctor. She even tells him how to wear his hair.

To me, this is a movie that settles very well, and it’s mostly because of Janet. Most people who remember Singles probably remember it for the music, or Steve’s good lines, or Cliff’s stoner-y goofiness. However, as a mature 40-something, I appreciate Janet, and not just because she is incredibly attractive, but because her character arc is the one that matters. She starts out as basically Cliff’s hanger-on, who sits around waiting for him to call her, and can’t think of anything to do with that time except make a salad, and in the end, she is on her own, she is helping her friends and she is loving life. Maybe she ends up with Cliff, and maybe that final scene is just a make-out in the elevator. Either way, I think she ends up in a good place. 

And she’s only 23.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to check out all the other posts and stuff that I have going on. And remember: “Have fun. Stay single.”