Party Girl

Crowds, drinks, loud music and a joint or two. Suddenly the police arrive and take the hostess away. This is our introduction to the film's main character, Mary. She is 24 years old, and hasn't done much with her life, apart from taking part in New York's club scene. Mary phones her godmother, Judy, from the police station to get her to bail her out. Their meeting results in Mary being provoked into starting work for her godmother, at a library. She is not, however, particularly interested in the library job. She has a hangover every morning and continues with her favourite occupation: stealing expensive designer clothes. The incident which results in her transformation is her meeting with Mustafa, a felafel seller. He tells her the story of his life and mentions the myth of Sisyphus, the man condemned to ceaselessly roll the same stone up the same hill. Mary sees the story as a metaphor for her own life and decides to become an existentialist. She spends a whole night learning the complicated cataloguing system at the library. She even eagerly reorganises her room mate Leo's record collection using the same system. During this hectic time she manages to forget a dinner date with Mustafa, and then makes countless felafel-buying visits in order to try to make up for her mistake. She is eventually forgiven, resulting in an erotic interlude at the library, which costs Mary her job. The film is the story of an insecure little girl who wants to become a woman. How difficult it can be to convince those around you that you want to change. As everyone's party primadonna, it is especially difficult for Mary to convince everyone that she wants to become a librarian. Her friends even throw a surprise party when she least needs it. Or does she...? Party Girl is an easy-going comedy and also a story about human transformation The film uses the library's card-index to describe Mary's wish for a more structured life. The story is permeated by an infectious geniality and lots of music, at times it feels like we have landed somewhere between Cindy Lauper's ''Girls Just Want to Have Fun'' and a novel by Joyce Carol Oates. Is life a game or serious? Mustafa's somewhat romantic theory is ''This is a garden and we're all flowers.'' MAD