“SHE’S SO LOVELY,” directed by Nick Cassavetes, written by John Cassavetes, running time: 112 minutes. Rated R (for strong language, violence, and adult content). Playing Sept. 2-9, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

The last time Sean Penn made a film with a wife, it was the disaster “Shanghai Surprise” and the wife was Madonna. This time around, he’s made a much better film with current wife Robin Wright Penn, which got me to thinking: Should Penn capitalize on this successful trend? Perhaps so. If he divorces Wright Penn and marries an even better actress — Vanessa Redgrave, perhaps — it only stands to reason that their film would sweep the Academy Awards and win everything — maybe even Best Song, which, of course, would be sung triumphantly by Madonna.

“She’s So Lovely” is a film that almost was never made. Written in the 1970s by maverick film director John Cassavetes, it went through a dozen rewrites before Penn showed interest in playing Eddie in the late 1980s. Cassavetes rewrote the script for Penn, but died before he was able to bring the project to screen.

Enter Nick Cassavetes, John’s son, a director himself who saw the project through to completion and directed Penn to an award-winning performance at Cannes as maniacal Eddie, the toxic drunk who loves too much.

The film opens with Maureen (Wright Penn) looking for her husband, Eddie, who has been missing for three days. Maureen is a skinny, clumsy, racoon-eyed mess who brings new meaning to the phrase “heroin chic.” She is a poor and desperate woman who celebrates her pregnancy with stiff drinks and long drags on filterless cigarettes. This immediately shocks and offends us, but Wright Penn’s performance is so extraordinary, you cannot help having sympathy for her tragic character. Maureen is someone you want to shake with reason, but that, you sense, would be futile. She can never be reasoned with because she is destined for a life of self-destruction.

Thus, it is only fitting that she is in love with Eddie, a raging alcoholic who brings her unimaginable enjoyment as well as great pain. In a wonderful, extended scene straight out of “Lady and the Tramp,” we see the magic that fuels their love and realize that, though they are two deeply troubled people, they understand each other completely. Their love is deep and passionate and intoxicatingly romantic. “We were meant for each other,” Eddie whispers to Maureen. “We’re all banged up.”

Not to mention unstable. When Maureen is raped by her neighbor, Kiefer (James Gandolfini), the act sends Eddie over the edge and eventually lands him in a mental institution.

“She’s So Lovely” cannot be taken literally. There are two distinctly differeint halves to this film that don’t work unless you accept the fact that Eddie and Maureen are mad. Their logic is illogical; they do not understand our rules, and thus cannot be held by them. It would be unfair to reveal the bizarre ending — which showcases Gena Rowlands and John Travolta in supporting roles — but it is important to know that this ending is simply an extension of the film’s rampant insanity. See this. Grade: B plus

Video of the Week

“EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU,” written and directed by Woody Allen. Running time: 101 minutes. Rated R (for language and adult content.)

When Julia Roberts unhinges her impossibly large mouth to sing in Woody Allen’s musical comedy, “Everyone Says I Love You,” dogs will either start howling in your neighborhood, or your skin will start shrinking in wincing disagreement. Her unintentional impersonation of Darth Vader is so unsettling, it hints at a woman who might indeed be the missing link I’ve always feared her to be. She is not so much an actress in this film as she is an enfant terrible whose off-key gasping is so gutteral, so base, it reminds one of key scenes in “Caligula.”

This aside, the film is still worth seeing.

“Everyone” is a romantic comedy whose cast tries to recapture the simplicity of first love, including Roberts, who really doesn’t love, though she does find it — briefly — in Woody Allen’s character, Joe. The cast is very good here, with Allen, Goldie Hawn and Alan Alda all singing their own songs, but it is Hawn and Allen who steal the show. At film’s end, the two stars share a magical dance along Paris’s Seine River that is a celebration of all that is great about life. There is true chemistry between them, and in this great film moment, whose secret won’t be revealed here, we are reminded of how special love is, and why we all want to find someone with whom to share it. Grade: B plus

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews movies each Monday in the NEWS.