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Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her Review: Hollywood's lack of confidence in woman-centered films -- even one with such recognizable names and faces as Holly Hunter, Cameron Diaz, Glenn Close, and Calista Flockhart -- to draw ticket buyers to theaters has never been more obvious than in MGM's handling of this charming and provocative set of slightly overlapping stories. Developed at the Sundance Institute and shown to acclaim at its 2000 festival, Things You Can Tell was picked up for theatrical distribution by MGM, who then backed out of backing the film and shipped it off to a cable channel for its debut. Garcia's script cleverly positions each leading female character with someone who depends on them and a yearning quality to their lives. Dr. Keener (with an invalid mother), a woman of science, resorts to a fortune teller in search of romantic happiness; Rebecca (with a married lover), a competent professional, wonders if the men she works with find her attractive; Rose (with a teenaged son) is strangely attracted to a neighbor; Christine (with an ill lesbian lover) dreams of a time when her lover was healthy and they were happier; Kathy (with a blind sister) is disturbed by parallels between her own loneliness and that of a suicide she is investigating. Things You Can Tell is much less dreary than that sounds; the film has moments of humor (especially in the story involving the single mom and the dwarf), and a light touch. The brevity of each story discourages any wallowing in the trenches of pity. Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

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