Channel Four Films
Starring: Catherine Keener, Anne Heche
Also Starring: Spatz
Directed by: Nicole Holofcener
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Two life-long girlfriends and former roommates, Amelia (Catherine Keener) and Laura (Anne Heche), find their lives are taking different paths and it’s questionable if their friendship can remain as strong as before.
Featured Feline: Amelia owns a heavy-set gray and white cat named Big Jeans (played by cat actor Spatz). In one of the first scenes in the movie Amelia is telling Laura that Big Jeans has been acting sick and she is taking her to the vet. In the next scene we see Amelia with Big Jeans with the veterinarian (Brenda Thomas Denmark) who comments on how fat the cat is.
The veterinarian promises to run some tests for Amelia on Big Jeans.
Later in the film Laura accompanies Amelia to another vet visit with Big Jeans.
It is then they are told that Big Jeans has cancer. Laura suggests putting her down but Amelia won’t hear of it and opts to start Big Jeans on chemotherapy.
Amelia ends up dating her local video store clerk (Kevin Corrigan), and he goes to her apartment. When he starts to sneeze he asks if she has a cat. She points out Big Jeans in the corner, looking sickly from her first chemotherapy session.
Big Jeans is seen again in another scene with Amelia, lying in bed with her.
Kitty Carnage Warning! Late in the film Amelia returns home from shopping and sees a crowd gathered on the sidewalk in front of her home. As she approaches she sees the gray and white body of Big Jeans lying on the sidewalk.
Big Jeans has fallen from the window ledge of Amelia’s apartment where she used to let her walk. The body of Big Jeans is last seen in a box in Amelia’s apartment. The scene is not gratuitously violent but the sudden death of Big Jeans this way is still disturbing.
Final Mewsings: Farewell Big Jeans, we hardly knew ye.
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