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Looking for Leonard
a.k.a. Sweethearts of the World

Click here for a Detailed Description and more...

This info and black and white image taken directly from the Looking for Leonard Official Website. Go there for more info and cool pictures and stuff!

This film has won the Grand Jury Prize at the 8th Annual San Antonio Underground Film Festival, held June 14, 15 , 16 at the The Alameda Theater in San Antonio, Texas. From the producers: "We are very happy and think that San Antonio must be a wonderful place with wonderful people in it."

Looking for Leonard is a funny, urban fairy tale that tells the story of a girl, a boy, a gun and Leonard Cohen. A discontented Jo (Kim Huffman) robs corner stores and dry cleaners with her boyfriend Ted (Ben Ratner) and his brother Johnny (Darcy Belsher). When they are not pursuing their comic book criminal life, Ted and Johnny stare at the TV, while Jo reads old Leonard Cohen paperbacks or goes to writing classes with her only friend, the religiously inspired, sex tinged Monica (Molly Parker).

Enter Luka (Joel Bissonnette), a Czech computer programmer, who arrives in Montreal with a lousy old love life behind him and what he hopes is a wonderful new world in front. Unfortunately, his hopes don't last. With his employer out of business and his apartment a dump, Luka finds himself wandering a strange new city, a lonely man with nothing to do.

Meanwhile things have been getting worse for Jo. Ted and Johnny have somehow become ambitious, and are now thinking about banks and other locales where real criminals go to work. When Jo refuses to go along with the new plan, Ted informs her that he and brother Johnny are taking a trip to another town for "criminal research".

While the brothers are away Jo runs into Luka at a drug store and somewhere between the shampoo and deodorants they begin to fall into something, but nothing in life comes easy, particularly in matters of the heart, so when a first kiss leads to death, and romance to suspicion, Jo and Luka have to wonder what love might have to do with them.

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Detailed synopsis from having seen the film....

It starts off with black and white scenes of Leonard Cohen from an old documentary. Mixed in with a punk version of Amazing Grace, it worked really well. These clips of the Leonard Cohen documentary are inserted periodically through out the film, sort of acting as a transition sequence..

Then we look at the lives of Jo, her boyfriend, Ted, and her boyfriend's brother, Johnny. They rob stores. Small-time stuff. Jo is obviously not really into it. And she's obviously not really into her boyfriend either.

Meanwhile, Luka (Joel) arrives from the Czech Rebulic, having been offered a job working with computers in Montreal. His attempts to contact his employer are fruitless, and the furnished apartment waiting for him is only sort-of furnished. The landlord died, leaving his widow to deal with things. Luka goes to the physical location of his job, only to be faced with a large sign saying, "For Rent." So Luka is living on his savings until he figures out what to do.

Jo is putting time into a writing group, and has befriended Monica (played by Molly Parker). It is clear from Jo's writing that she is not happy with her relationship, but feels like she can't leave. When Monica asks her why, Jo replies that the problem isn't with her boyfriend. The problem is with Jo, and even if she left Ted, she'd still be stuck with herself.

When Ted and Johnny decide they want to start robbing banks instead of stores, they plan a little trip to "bank-robbing camp," leaving Jo alone in the house.

In going to a store, Luka finds himself walking along behind Jo, and sees her slipping things into her purse. He kindly decides to warn her that she is being very obvious, and her reaction is very rude at first. But when she realizes that he was really just trying to be helpful, she warms up to him, and they end up walking around together the entire day. She tells him all about this urban legend of people who have spotted Leonard Cohen walking around Montreal and how she's always hoped to catch a glimpse of him.

Luka walks Jo home and she invites him in. They kiss, but then are interrupted by Johnny. Jo is shocked by this, but Johnny seems calm enough. Until he attacks Luka. In trying to get Johnny away from Luka, Jo hits him with an object, accidentally killing him. She tells Luka to leave, and he does.

Jo sets it up so that it looks as if the place was broken into and robbed, with Johnny getting killed in the process. She hides the stash of money that Ted had been keeping. Unfortunately, Luka dropped his wallet in the process and the police decide he must have been the perpetrator. Jo is too frazzled to come up with any other story, so the police proceed to stake out Luka's apartment. Luka gets drunk and stumbles into an empty building which soon becomes his new home.

Jo books a plane ticket to Australia, thinking that she'll finally take the money and leave Ted.

Ted comes back from "camp" and is in total shock over his brother's death. He wanders around in a daze, thinking about finding the guy who killed his brother.

Luka befriends a local guy who does things like washing people's windshields on the streets and whatnot. His name is Chevy, named for the car factory that gave his father a job at the time. Chevy helps Luka get settled in and shows him the ropes for being a street windshield-washer.

Luka manages to talk with Jo about what happened. She asks him why he's still around after what happened, and he tells her that he's in love with her. He shows her where he lives, and she says she'll come see him.

I know I'm missing some details here, and I'm sure I have a few things out of order...

Anyway, something happens, and Jo runs away from Ted, leaving the money hidden in a potted plant. She goes and stays with Luka, telling him the entire story. While she's sleeping, Luka goes back to the house, waiting for Ted to leave, then goes in to find the money. As he comes out, he passes Ted who, though drunk, recognizes him from the id picture and proceeds to chase him.

Meanwhile, Jo is awakened by Chevy coming in. He's just been beaten up by two junkies that he'd cheated. She takes care of him, then starts wondering where Luka is. She gets dressed to go out and look for him.

Ted and Luka run past where Jo has just stepped out into the street, looking for Luka, and she runs after them.

Ted traps Luka in an alley and points the gun at him. Jo tries to tell Ted that she killed Johnny, but Ted doesn't believe her. He shoots Luka, then runs away, leaving Jo in the alley with an unconscious Czech.

Good thing Luka smokes! The bullet struck his Zippo lighter and so he was only knocked out. Not dead!

They wander off together and the credits roll.. About halfway through the credits Luka says, "Oh, $h|t." And then you see the bag full of money still sitting in the alley. :)

This is where the film ends. Maybe they got to the money. Maybe they didn't. But they had each other, and they were both free of Ted. :)

So there it is!
Fun flick. If you get the chance to check it out, this is *must see* for Joel fans!

~~~~~~~

After we saw the movie, Sugar and I got a chance to meet Steve Clark and Kim Huffman. Steve gave us each a Looking for Leonard poster and a packet of "Have you seen Leonard?" stickers. They both signed our posters, and they were really nice. The director of the short film, The Bus Stops Here was very cool and invited us to join everyone at a restaurant/bar later on. Sugar went back to the hotel, but I joined the Film Festival folks at the bar and did some karaoke! Here is a picture of Steve Clark as he's getting ready to do his take on The Eagles, and then here's a picture of me with Steve and Kim. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture with Robert (the director of the short film). He was really cool.