PRETTY DOESN'T HURT | Omeleto

A young girl watches her mother, aunt and a stranger clash over who pays for dinner.
PRETTY DOESN'T HURT is used with permission from Jennifer Rau. Learn more at https://www.prettydoesnthurtfilm.com.
Mindy is fresh off a divorce when she goes on a trip with her 11-year-old daughter Julia and her single sister Jess. At the hotel, Mindy meets a musician named Steve, exchanging flirtatious glances in the hall. When her sister Jess collides with the pair in the hallway, Steve invites the whole family out to dinner, though it's not clear which sister could end up with Steve.

The dinner is fun, with Steve enjoying the company of both Mindy and Jess. But when Mindy and Jess make a bet about whether or not Steve will pay for dinner, the two sisters reveal fundamental differences in how they see the world, with Julia caught in the middle.

Directed by Jennifer Rau and written by Brooke Berman, this short drama takes the question of who will pay for dinner as its jumping-off point for a story that's equal part family drama and coming-of-age story. The action is primarily driven by Mindy and her sister Jess, whose perspectives on dating manners and mores differ, but young Julia is also taking everything in, learning about the unspoken rules about women and men in a painfully poignant way.

The film has a slice-of-life look and feel, with unadorned, naturalistic visuals and a simplicity in the visual storytelling that lets the characters, dialogue and relationships come to the fore. Mindy and Jess are very different women. Though they are sisters, they have underlying beliefs that shape their interactions and ways of seeing differently. The ways they interact with Steve show their different ways of operating around men and what they think men and women should do. Jess is more independent-minded and thinks traditional ideas about men and women don't really work or apply anymore. But Mindy is more traditionally feminine, with ideas of what women and men should be and do, whether that's turning on the charm in any interaction with a man or expecting men to be "gentlemen."

The sisters' differences carry over into their dinner later with Steve, whose motives and thoughts are not revealed, either to the sisters or to the audience. Actors Jenny Maguire and Jenna Krasowski play Mindy and Jess, respectively, conveying both the long-time connection and sometimes flinty familiarity of sisters with significant differences. These become more pointed when triangulated with Steve, played by actor Andy Lucien with a relaxed affability that could be read as both romantic interest but also innate warmth. Mindy makes a bet on whether or not Steve will pay for dinner, though the more independent-minded Jess thinks it's ridiculous.

Watching all this is Mindy's daughter Julia, played by young performer Keeley Karsten. The film shifts to the daughter's perspective as the climax and denouement play out between Mindy, Jess and Steve, in a painfully awkward scene. What resonates -- and what we take as PRETTY DOESN'T HURT winds to its conclusion -- is not just how loaded the question of paying for dinner has become, but also a sense of missed opportunity it creates in the story. Rigid roles and practices might ease anxiety and make things more clear in dating and life, but sometimes it comes at a cost. No doubt Julia will reflect on this as she gets older, as she decides who she wants to be and what kind of world she wants to live in.

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