Flannel Pajamas

Falling in and out of love with another human being can quite easily be considered one of the momentous events a person will experience in life. Indeed, it is the classic drama that so often fuels fantastic, larger-than-life tales. With his deeply affecting feature, Flannel Pajamas, director Jeff Lipsky reminds us that the enormous, and sometimes devastating, magic of loving someone can be found in the subtle, everyday, real-life moments of a relationship. Stuart and Nicole meet through mutual friends and experience a magical evening in a local diner one rainy spring night; it may never get better than this. But it does, and a stunning courtship ensues, drenching the lovers in radiance. Inside the cauldron of their romance, their enchantment mixes slowly with their own human shortcomings, and the relationship evolves in a way that is as delicate and effortless as it is dizzying and defying. Lipsky's marvelously observed characters and dialogue are brought to life by warm, natural, and genuinely inhabited performances from Julianne Nicholson and Justin Kirk. A unique accomplishment, Flannel Pajamas is the kind of honest and truthful romantic drama that can only come from American independent cinema.