Choose Me (1984)

Choose Me (1984)

Taglines: Laughter, tears and telephone calls. Love is the true adventure.

Choose Me movie storyline. After Mickey is released from a mental hospital, where his stories are perceived as lies, he goes back to Los Angeles in search of a woman named Eve. When he arrives at the bar that bears her name, he is immediately attracted to the new owner, a former call girl also named Eve. She tells Mickey she bought the bar after the old owner killed herself, “over some guy”.

The bar is a popular spot for patrons looking for one night stands as well as streetwalkers looking for potential johns. Although Eve is also attracted to Mickey, she refuses to commit to any one man, confessing to radio talk show host Dr. Nancy Love that she ruined too many marriages to have one of her own. That night Eve rebuffs Mickey’s advances and sleeps with the bartender who has a crush on her, while avoiding the wealthy married man she’s been having an affair with.

That same night, Dr. Nancy Love answered Eve’s ad for a roommate to share her house, and moves in the next day. Nancy conceals her identity and begins to observe Eve’s romantic entanglements even as she counsels Eve through her radio show. When Eve’s married lover, Zack, calls looking for her, Nancy asks penetrating questions and begins dispensing relationship advice, despite the fact that she herself has been unable to maintain a successful relationship. Zack in turn resumes his pursuit of Eve, although his wife, Pearl, has begun to haunt Eve’s bar hoping to catch him with her, unbeknownst to Eve.

Choose Me (1984)

Mickey comes back to the bar the next night when he is unable to pay for a bus ticket home to Las Vegas. Pearl asks his opinion of a poem, and when she argues his interpretation Mickey reveals that he taught poetry, as well as being a photographer and a former soldier. Eve is intrigued but cool, and Mickey leaves when Pearl offers to get him into a hot card game where he can get the money for a ticket home.

When she drops him off, Mickey kisses Pearl and asks her to marry him, but she just laughs, calling him crazy, although she invites him to drop by her place, and gives him Eve’s address and phone number. At the game Mickey wins big, earning the ire of Pearl’s husband Zack. Zack warns Mickey not to come back, before he goes to meet Eve, but Eve in turn sends Zack away, telling him their affair is over.

Mickey goes to Pearl’s apartment to crash, and when he wakes up begins taking pictures as she sleeps. She is just waking up when Zack walks in, still stinging from Eve’s rejection, and he attacks Mickey, pulling a gun and taking back the money he lost. He slaps Pearl after Mickey runs out, assuming they slept together. It is implied that Zack frequently abuses Pearl emotionally and physically and perhaps she was hoping to catch her husband with Eve so she could finally have an excuse to divorce him.

Choose Me is a 1984 American comedy-drama film directed and written by Alan Rudolph, starring Keith Carradine, Lesley Ann Warren, and Geneviève Bujold. The film is a look at sex and love in 1980s Los Angeles centered around a dive bar known as Eve Lounge. The film’s tagline is In the middle of the night, when there’s no one else…

Choose Me Movie Poster (1984)

Choose Me (1984)

Directed by: Alan Rudolph
Starring: Geneviève Bujold, Keith Carradine, Lesley Ann Warren, Patrick Bauchau, Rae Dawn Chong, John Larroquette, John Considine, Teresa Velarde
Screenplay by: Alan Rudolph
Production Design by: Steven Legler
Cinematography by: Jan Kiesser
Film Editing by: Mia Goldman
Costume Design by: Tracy Tynan
Music by: Phil Woods, Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass
Distributed by: Island Alive
Release Date: August 29, 1984

Visits: 205