My feeling for Henry Jaglom's movies made in the eighties is most definitely ambivalent. While they are somewhat intriguing, they are also annoying. "Someone to Love" is a prime example. As with other works of his, Jaglom tends to use lovers, friends and acquaintances who are then afforded the opportunity to reveal their psychological makeup in thinly disguised characters. His preferred method is the talking head closeup.
Jaglom was fortunate enough to count Orson Welles as a personal friend, (he named his son after him). In "Someone to Love" Welles is allotted a couple of minutes of riveting screen time. It's only then that the movie really comes to life. The problem is, as always, Jaglom's characters are far less interesting to audiences than they are to him. One finds oneself not really caring too much about their problems in making lasting relationships, the central theme of the movie.
The most praiseworthy aspect of Jaglom's career is that he actually managed to emerge from this lengthy self indulgent phase and began making movies with a far wider scope. ("Last Summer in the Hampton" and "Déjà vu", his finest work to date.) Welles mentions that nobody makes movies like Jaglom. He is right, but that can be construed negatively. While Jaglom is notoriously self indulgent, there is a redeeming honesty and lack of pretentiousness in his artistic motives.
Music enthusiasts (of albeit lesser known performers) will enjoy short interludes performed by Stephen Bishop, Dave Frishberg and Andrea Marcovicci.
