My First Mister Review
Release date: Friday, January 19, 2001
Cast: Leelee Sobieski, Albert Brooks, Desmond Harrington, Carol Kane, Mary Kay Place
Director: Christine Lahti
Screenwriter: Jill Franklyn
Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes

Christine Lahti’s My First Mister is the kind of film that arrives quietly, finds almost no audience, and then spends the next two decades being discovered one person at a time by people who cannot believe they had never heard of it.

Released in 2001 to minimal fanfare and even less box office, it has lived in obscurity ever since. Even I didn’t watch it until this year, and I crushed on Leelee back when the film released. I had never ever heard of it until I began working my way through Leelee’s filmography again recently.

It’s a shame, because at its best it is one of the more charming and unexpectedly moving films of that entire era.

The premise sounds like it should not work. Jennifer (Leelee Sobieski), or J, is a goth teenager (facial piercings, heavy eyeliner, the full black uniform) who wanders into the clothing store managed by Randall (Albert Brooks), a buttoned-up, deeply private man in his forties who wants nothing more than to be left alone.

Through a combination of persistence and circumstance, the two form an unlikely friendship that slowly becomes the most meaningful relationship either of them has ever had. On paper it reads as either saccharine or uncomfortable. On screen it is neither.

The reason it works is almost entirely down to the two lead performances and the chemistry between them, which frankly, nobody had any right to expect.

Brooks has always been at his best playing men who are their own worst enemies (brilliant, guarded, and faintly ridiculous), and Randall fits that template perfectly. But what he does here that is less typical is allow genuine warmth to emerge without ever making it feel forced.

You understand exactly why this lonely, particular man would respond to Jennifer’s relentless sincerity.

And Sobieski, who spent much of her career being underutilized, is extraordinary here. Jennifer could easily read as a type of quirky, damaged, and misunderstood girl, but Leelee gives her an interior life and a quiet ferocity that makes every scene feel real.

The moment you realize these two performers have found something genuinely rare together is about twenty minutes in, and it doesn’t let go.

Lahti directs with a light hand that suits the material. The film is patient in the way that studio pictures rarely are, content to let scenes breathe and let the relationship develop at a natural pace. For most of its running time, My First Mister earns everything it reaches for.

It helps considerably that Lahti surrounds her leads with a strong supporting cast. Carol Kane and John Goodman appear in smaller roles that add texture to Jennifer’s world without ever pulling focus from the central relationship, and Desmond Harrington does solid work as a love interest who represents the more conventional path Jennifer could take. The film is smart enough to use these supporting characters sparingly; they exist to illuminate Jennifer and Randall rather than to complicate the plot unnecessarily for the most part.

The last act is where it stumbles. Without venturing too far into spoiler territory, the film makes a narrative choice in its final stretch that trades the quiet authenticity it spent ninety minutes building for something considerably more conventional.

It’s not a fatal misstep, but it is a noticeable one: the kind of ending that feels like it was designed to satisfy a test audience rather than serve the story. The film that preceded it deserved better quiet frankly.

Still, what came before is more than enough to recommend it. My First Mister is a quiet gem that asks you to trust it and mostly justifies that trust. Sobieski and Brooks alone make it worth your time.

My First Mister is currently streaming for free on Tubi, so if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend giving it a watch.

My First Mister gets a four out of five: COMMENDABLE.

If you enjoyed this review, check out my review of Leelee Sobieski in Joan of Arc and also in The Glass House. You can also check out my Top 5 Lee Sobieski Movies article, which houses links to all of my reviews of her films. And you can browse all of our movie reviews by clicking here.

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