Puccini for Beginners (2007)

THREE THE HARD WAY Reaser (pictured, right), Mol (left), and Justin Kirk are a tangled trio of lovers in Puccini for Beginners

As Allegra, a bisexual New York novelist carrying on concurrent love affairs in Puccini for Beginners with fluttery Gretchen Mol and stoic Justin Kirk, Elizabeth Reaser, so vibrant in last year's Sweet Land, has a bloom that recalls Debra Winger in her playful prime. She makes sensual confusion seem sexy and wise. The plot, which spins around Allegra's lovers having just been an item, is awkward bedroom farce, but the tone is Woody Allen-meets-The L Word, with a patina of literary cuteness that now seems like the sound of a vanished Manhattan. B-