BOSTON HERALD
August 15, 2001

Film about mentally handicapped celebrates ordinary 'Lifestyles'
By Paul Sherman

In one of the more enjoyable moments in the documentary "Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown," Marni Jamieson turns to the camera and says, deadpan, "Ladies and gentleman, can we please help this poor, helpless soul?"

A mentally handicapped woman living in New York City with her similarly handicapped husband, Jamieson is mocking public service announcements that patronizingly ask us to assist the unfortunate.

Well, the movie and Jamieson seem to say, maybe those unfortunate ones are doing OK by themselves, without our pats on the head. And maybe, like all of us, they're just trying to make it through the day.

This sentiment is the best thing about "Lifestyles," a 47-minute film directed by Arlington's Nancy Fliesler, Marni's sister. Filmed from 1996 to 1998, it's a portrait of Marni and husband Kris' day-to-day lives together and apart.

We see him at his part-time stockroom job at Kids "R" Us; we watch her attend classes at a community college; we see them plan a vacation in the Poconos and have a housewarming party; and, in separate interview sequences interspersed throughout, we hear them talk about living in a society that, for better or worse, has deemed them "special."

"Lifestyles" never pretends to be anything more than a document of how Marni and Kris spend their everyday lives, and it suffers slightly from not being anything more than that (despite the inclusion of a sequence in which the filmmaker and her sister talk about times Marni showed resentment toward Nancy).

It certainly doesn't have the drama of last year's "Sound and Fury," the documentary that framed its look at the deaf community with the controversy about a new implant that helps deaf children hear and speak better than their deaf parents.

But what "Lifestyles" does have are the personalities of Marni, who ranges from dead serious ("I hate being treated like I'm special") to sarcastic, and Kris, whose boyish enthusiasm seems to carry over to his co-workers. This is no case study showing us how different Kris and Marni are; it's too personal for that.

**1/2 (out of four)