You know that feeling when you watch a movie from your childhood and realize it’s way darker and more bizarre than you remembered? That’s basically the entire vibe of the 1988 film Some Girls. Most people today know Jennifer Connelly as an Oscar winner or the woman who stole the show in Top Gun: Maverick. Back in the late eighties, though, she was in this weird transitional phase. She wasn't the child star from Labyrinth anymore, but she hadn't quite become the "prestige" actress we know now.
Some Girls Jennifer Connelly is a phrase that usually pops up in late-night Reddit threads or deep-dives into Patrick Dempsey’s "McDreamy" origins. It’s a coming-of-age story that feels less like The Breakfast Club and more like a fever dream set in a snowy, gothic version of Quebec.
What Actually Happens in Some Girls?
The plot is kind of a mess, but in a way that feels intentional. Patrick Dempsey plays Michael, a college student who flies to Quebec City to spend Christmas with his girlfriend, Gabriella (played by a 17-year-old Connelly). He’s expecting a romantic, snowy getaway. Instead, the second he steps off the plane, Gabriella basically tells him, "Yeah, I don't love you anymore."
Ouch.
But instead of just getting back on a plane like a normal person, Michael sticks around. He gets trapped in this massive, labyrinthine mansion with Gabriella’s family, the D’Arcs. The family is... a lot.
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- The Dad (Andre Gregory): An intellectual who spends almost the entire movie completely naked because he claims he can't write while wearing clothes.
- The Sisters: Irenka (Sheila Kelley) and Simone (Ashley Greenfield), who spend a significant amount of time trying to seduce poor, confused Michael.
- The Mother: A fiercely religious woman who looks like she’s permanently disappointed in everyone.
- Granny: The grandmother who has dementia and thinks Michael is her dead husband (also named Michael).
It’s a bizarre setup. Honestly, the movie spends a lot of time hovering between a teen sex comedy and a serious meditation on how women are "unknowable" to men.
Jennifer Connelly as Gabriella: The "Unreachable" Girl
In Some Girls, Jennifer Connelly is the emotional anchor, even though her character spends most of the film pushing Michael away. This was one of the first roles where she really leaned into that ethereal, slightly cold beauty that became her trademark.
Gabriella is fickle. One minute she’s crying over her dying grandmother, the next she’s acting like Michael is a total stranger. Some critics at the time hated this. They called the character vapid or a "tease." But looking at it now, you can see what the director, Michael Hoffman, was trying to do. Gabriella isn't a prize for Michael to win; she’s a person going through a massive internal crisis who happens to have a very confused boyfriend trailing her around.
Connelly was actually a student at Yale when she was doing some of this work. She’s talked before about how she was a "nerdy" kid who spent all her time in the library. That intelligence comes through in her performance. She doesn't play Gabriella as a "mean girl." She plays her as someone who is genuinely finished with a relationship and doesn't know how to handle the guilt.
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Why Does This Movie Matter Now?
If you're looking for Some Girls Jennifer Connelly online, you're probably noticing how different it looks compared to the neon-soaked 80s movies we usually see. It’s dark. It’s musty. The house feels like it’s out of a Victorian ghost story.
The film was originally titled Sisters, but they changed it at the last minute. That’s probably for the best, because the "sisters" are really the catalyst for Michael’s growth. While Gabriella is distant, her sisters Irenka and Simone are aggressively present. There’s a lot of nudity—something Connelly would later express mixed feelings about in her early career—but in this specific movie, it’s used to highlight Michael’s "innocent fool" persona. He’s surrounded by beauty and sexuality but has no idea how to navigate any of it.
The Supernatural Twist
Here is the part people always forget. The ending of the movie takes a hard left turn into the supernatural. After the grandmother dies, Michael meets a young woman at her grave. He later sees a photo and realizes the girl he just talked to was actually the grandmother as a young woman.
It turns the whole movie from a "horny teen in Quebec" story into something much more haunting. It suggests that Michael’s bond with the elderly, dying woman was the most "real" relationship in the film, far more than his obsession with Gabriella.
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Fact-Checking the Production
A lot of people think this was a huge hit because of the stars, but it really wasn't.
- The Budget: It was a small $5 million production.
- The Sets: Director Michael Hoffman has mentioned in commentaries that the "mansion" was basically held together with staples and luck.
- The Hair: Patrick Dempsey’s hair in this movie is truly a work of art—or a cry for help, depending on your perspective. It’s very Art Garfunkel.
- Box Office: It only made about $400,000. It was a total flop in theaters but found a second life on VHS and eventually Blu-ray.
How to Watch It Today
If you want to track down Some Girls Jennifer Connelly scenes or the full film, it’s not always the easiest find on the major streamers. It pops up on Apple TV and occasionally Prime, but the best way to see it is the Kino Lorber Blu-ray. It has a commentary track where the director basically admits the movie is a bit of a "strange bird."
For fans of Connelly, it’s a vital piece of the puzzle. It’s the bridge between her "pretty girl in a movie" phase and her "serious actress" phase. You can see her starting to take up more space on the screen, even when she’s not the one talking.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Collectors
- Check the Year: Make sure you're looking for the 1988 film. There’s a 2013 movie called Some Girl(s) (with an 's' in parentheses) that is completely different and based on a Neil LaBute play.
- Look for the "Happy Together 2" Title: If you’re a physical media collector in the Philippines or parts of Asia, the movie was weirdly marketed as a sequel to Patrick Dempsey’s other movie Happy Together, even though they have nothing to do with each other.
- Watch for the Cinematography: Pay attention to the lighting in the library scenes. It was shot by Ueli Steiger, who went on to do huge blockbusters like The Day After Tomorrow. The "look" of this movie is way higher quality than your average 80s comedy.
- Contextualize the Nudity: If you're sensitive to how 80s movies handled young actresses, be aware that this film features a lot of casual nudity (though Connelly herself is more modest here than in her later role in The Hot Spot). It’s part of the film's "European" feel but can be jarring if you're expecting a PG-13 rom-com.
This movie isn't a masterpiece, but it’s a fascinating relic. It captures a moment where Jennifer Connelly was deciding exactly what kind of actress she wanted to be, while Patrick Dempsey was still trying to figure out how to be a leading man. It’s weird, it’s cold, and it’s definitely not your typical Christmas movie.