Bayside resident Mark Metcalf is an actor who has worked in movies, TV and on the stage. He is best known for his work in "Animal House," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Seinfeld."

In addition to his work on screen, Metcalf is involved with the Milwaukee International Film Festival, First Stage Children's Theater and a number of other projects, including the comedy Web site, comicwonder.com.

He also finds time to write about movies for OnMilwaukee.com. In this week's installment of the Screening Room, Mark looks at "Flannel Pajamas" and "Out of Sight."

FLANNEL PAJAMAS (2006)

In 1979, I produced a feature film called "Chilly Scenes of Winter." It was called "Head Over Heels" when United Artists released it in 1979, but we took it back from them and re-released it under it's original title, "Chilly Scenes of Winter," in 1980, or thereabouts.

But that is another, longer story.

The final moment in that film was supposed to be of the child, Rebecca, staring out the window watching the snow fall. Her mother comes up behind her and asks what she is doing. She says she is counting snowflakes. Her mother, played by Mary Beth Hurt, says, "But honey, there are so many. You'll never count them all." Rebecca says, "Don't worry, I'm only counting the ones that are exactly alike."

The movie was a kind of a love story. The moment never made it into the film, though I lobbied hard for it. I thought it was a great metaphor for hope and for love. That was the ending of the book by Anne Beattie that the film was based on and I thought it deserved to finish the film as well. It's a many-headed monster that creates a film so other heads prevailed and that image does not end the film. It does in the book. I recommend the book. And the movie.

One of the people who worked on finding distribution for that movie was a really great guy named Jeff Lipsky. Now Jeff Lipsky has written and directed a movie called "Flannel Pajamas" and the very last moment in his film is of a man, whose wife has left him, staring out the window of his 35th floor apartment in New York City across the Hudson River. And he says, to no one in particular, "I just saw a boat with a colored pinwheel spinning in the wind on the front of it." It is a wonderful film that goes on a little too long but loves abides in it, even though it doesn't last. I liked the last moment and I wondered if Jeff thought at all about what could have been the last moment in "Chilly Scenes of Winter." The egocentrism of people and their work when they really love their work amazes me, especially when I succumb to it.

"Flannel Pajamas" is a really well written and acted story of a man and a woman meeting in New York City, falling for each other, dating, dealing with each other's friends and families, going home for Christmas, getting married, not having children, not getting a dog, not loving each other quite well enough, and eventually leaving each other.

Both people are very smart, but only marginally successful, and it's a fine romance, as Cole Porter would have said. It reminds me of a Woody Allen film with more heart than style. Because the people are smart and self-conscious, it never gets too schmaltzy even when it tips that way. And because they are smart and should know better, it is really sad when they can't support each other when they need it most and they walk away from the love that obviously abides within.

Justin Kirk, who is very funny in the Showtime series "Weeds," plays Stuart and Julianne Nicholson, plays Nicole. Jamie Harrold plays a kind of truth telling, suicidal, Mercutio character who is also Stuart's brother. He has brief moments of brilliance. Too brief. I would have liked to have seen more of him. But that is the way you should feel about a good performance. So ... no real stars, good writing, well acted, and a charming story. That's enough for me. But Dan Lawton has said about me that I never met a movie I didn't like, so I guess that makes me easy.

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