A New York girl sets her father up with a beautiful woman in a troubled marriage while her stepsister gets engaged.
Holden and Skylar are in love. Skylar lives with a large extended family in Manhattan. Her parents, Bob and Steffi, have been married for many years. Joe, a friend of theirs, has a daughter, DJ, with Steffi. After yet another relationship, Joe is alone again. He flees to Venice, where he meets Von, and makes her believe that he is the man of her dreams. However, their happiness is fake all the way, and Von returns to her husband. Steffi spends her time in philanthropy, and manages to break up Skylar and Holden by introducing Skylar to ex-con Charles Ferry.—<[email protected]>
Djuna Berlin - D.J. to most that know her - serves as the narrator of the current stories associated with the ultra-wealthy, ultra-liberal and all-inclusive Park Avenue household in which she lives, which was formed by the marriage of her mother Steffi, always working on one cause or another, and Bob Dandridge, a lawyer. The one current blight in the house is Bob's son from his first marriage, Scott Dandridge, who has recently begun to espouse ultra-conservative philosophies and politics. Steffi and Bob's two offspring together, mid-teens Lane Dandridge and Laura Dandridge, are like two peas in a pod, which may become a problem in they both liking the same boy they see around in the neighborhood. Skylar Dandridge, Bob's other offspring from his first marriage, is in love with Holden Spence, who works in Bob's firm. Holden, who has no sense of what it means to be romantic, asks for D.J.'s help in devising a memorable marriage proposal to Skylar. Skylar, who is a bit of a neophyte when it comes to love, may believe there are other things out there besides staid Holden, especially as Steffi exposes the household to the down and out through her philanthropy. D.J. tells herself she doesn't see getting married like Skylar as she goes in and out of one pseudo-serious relationship after another. One other person D.J. talks about is her "real" father, Steffi's first husband, Paris-based writer Joe Berlin, who both Steffi and Bob consider a good friend. Joe is reeling from his latest breakup with a woman named Giselle, he bemoaning how his relationships never work. D.J. believes the woman to who Joe has recently been attracted to from afar would be the perfect woman for him based on inside information D.J. has about her which she feeds to her father to play upon the woman's deepest fantasies. The fact that she is married is inconsequential, at least in this situation.—Huggo
A family of rich liberal Upper East Siders are involved in the lessons of life as though it were a musical from the 1930's. The extended family of liberal lawyer Bob includes a do-gooder wife, daughters, son, grandfather, German maid, stepdaughter and even the ex-husband. While the story concerns love and engagements, a number of scenes are set in music to the traditions of the old musicals where lines would lead into songs and dances.—Tony Fontana <[email protected]>
Holden (Edward Norton) and Skylar (Drew Barrymore) are in love with each other.Skylar lives with a large and extended family on Manhattan. Her parents, Bob (Alan Alda) (who is a lawyer) and Steffi (Goldie Hawn) have been married to each other for many years. Joe (Woody Allen), a friend of theirs who lives in Paris, who has a daughter, Djuna "D.J." Berlin (Natasha Lyonne), with Steffi (they were married earlier, but are divorced now). DJ lives with Bob and Steffi and knows that Joe is her real father. Lane (Gaby Hoffmann) & Laura (Natalie Portman) are Bob's other daughters with Steffi, along with son Scott (Lukas Haas). Scott is a conservative Republican, when all the other house members are liberal democrats. Grandpa (Patrick Cranshaw) and maid Frida.
Claire is Lane and Laura's best friend. and they eavesdrop on her psychiatrist mother's conversation with her patients. One of those is a woman named Von, who fantasizes about being with other men. Holden wants to propose to Skylar and takes DJ to buy an engagement ring. But he can't find anything in his budget ($2000), as most rings are super expensive ($8K - $55k).DJ thinks Skylar suffers from the white knight syndrome and is a dreamer. Holden doesn't know many things about Skylar (she wants to live in NYC, wants only 2 kids and wants a career in architecture despite majoring in journalism).Holden proposes Skylar at a restaurant by hiding the ring in the desert, but Skylar didn't know and ate the ring (hidden inside the whipped cream). Skylar has to go to a hospital to have surgery to get the ring removed.
After yet another relationship (the girlfriend Giselle left Joe without any warning), Joe is alone again. Bob and Steffi think that Joe is still in love with Steffi and hence can't settle down. Joe flees to Venice for the summer with DJ. While DJ has fun with Italian guys, Joe is too depressed with the memory of Giselle.Joe meets Von (Julia Roberts). DJ is astonished and reveals that she knows Von is not happily married and knows everything about her likes and dislikes. Using this knowledge (she is a art historian, jogs every morning alone), Joe makes her believe that he is the man of her dreams. He reads up on all the artwork that Von is in Venice to document. DJ also tells him about her like for Bora Bora and favorite flower, the African Daisy.DJ introduces Joe to Alberto, an Italian whom she is dating and has decided to marry him. Joe is angry as DJ only met him 5 days ago and Alberto is a gondolier.
Joe runs into Von at a party and continues seducing her. Von ends up kissing Joe. Joe leaves for Paris the next day and DJ goes to NYC. DJ ends up meeting Ken Risley (Billy Crudup) at the airport. Ken's uncle teaches at Columbia, where DJ studies. DJ falls in love with Ken.
Steffi spends her time with charity work. As her new pet project, Steffi spends her time on the parole of jailbird, Charles Ferry (Tim Roth).Steffi buys Skylar a drop-dead gorgeous wedding dress. Holden's dad Arnold (David Ogden Stiers) (& wife Lynn (Scotty Bloch)) bonds with Bob and they end up buying a thorough bred horse together. Lane and Laura have a crush on a rich kid Jeffery. Steffi invites Charles to her birthday in the fall and introduces him to Skylar.Charles hasn't had female contact for a while and is all over Skylar. Skylar runs into Charles on the roof, and he seduces her by saying that he would have sex with her in all the rooms of the house. He then proceeds to grab Skylar and kiss her. Skylar likes the kiss.
Meanwhile DJ again overhears Von's conversation with Claire's mother. Von likes Joe. Von finally ends up sleeping with Joe, when he visits NYC, and it is amazing for her. Skylar breaks off the wedding with Holden. Steffi is shocked to know that Skylar is in love with Charles now. Laura is heartbroken when Jeffrey asks Laura out on a date ignoring her.DJ breaks up with Ken and starts dating a rap singer.Skylar is disillusioned when Charles teams up with other convicts to rob a grocery store. They use Skylar as a hostage to get away from the police and then dump her by the roadside.Holden comes back to Skylar. This time he hid the ring in a box of cracker jacks, and she swallowed it again. Turns out Scott had an artery blockage which was preventing his brain from getting enough oxygen. As that was treated, he became a democrat like everyone else in the family.
Von goes to Paris to meet Joe. Joe changes his apartment and his entire life to make sure that he makes true on all the lies he told Von (like he uses a vintage typewriter and lives in a small Parisian apartment).The entire family visits Paris on Christmas. They learn that Von left Joe. Von realized that she still loves Greg. She has lived her fantasy and that is out of her system.Bob is down with fever and Steffi goes to a Christmas party with Joe. They end up spending the night, reliving their time together in Paris, back when they were husband and wife. Joe takes Steffi to the riverfront. They get to talking and end up kissing each other. They decide to go back to the party.
