Randle Exceptional, But ‘Girl 6’ Just More Tedious Fluff

After a string of real, artistic movies in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s including “Do the Right Thing,” “Jungle Fever,” and “Mo’ Better Blues,” Spike Lee seems to be shooting blanks lately with “Clockers” and now “Girl 6.”

While last fall’s “Clockers” (now out on video) was a heavy film absent of comic relief, “Girl 6” is mostly fluff and of little substance.

Theresa Randle stars as a struggling New York actress working in the phone sex business so she can save enough money to go to Hollywood. The movie opens with “Girl 6” refusing to strip at an audition for Quentin Tarantino (played by himself), and it ends with Girl 6 in Hollywood refusing to strip at an audition for Ron Silver (also played by himself).

In between, she becomes obsessed with listening to men’s phone fantasies and playing various roles at their request. When one caller gets too creepy, she quits her phone sex job, makes up with her ex-husband (Isaiah Washington) and engages in a few fantasies of her own.

The problem with “Girl 6” is that while the imaginings of Randle’s character are funny, most of her callers’ fantasies are neither humorous nor interesting, and they comprise the bulk of the film. The phone sex portions of “Girl 6” are just tedious.

Randle turns in an exceptional performance as Girl 6; the depth she manages to give her character is one of the movie’s redeeming features. This role should advance her career.

Another redeeming feature is the character played by Spike Lee himself, the heroine’s next-door neighbor. Jimmy seems to be Girl 6’s best friend; he’s always there for her. It’s hard to understand why she ended up with her ex-husband, a kleptomaniac with nothing on the ball except for his habit of bringing her small gifts.

In one of the final scenes, Girl 6 and her husband float through the picture together on their way to get a cab while Jimmy stands in the background holding her luggage.

In the same scene, Girl 6 and her ex embrace while telephones fall from the sky, signaling an end to her strange addiction to phone sex. While she did manage to leave her job, one gets the feeling that nothing has really changed. Girl 6 may have moved on to better things, but she’s also holding on to a man with no character whatsoever.

The incoherence of the plot, particularly the ending, is probably due to poor editing. So many important elements of the film seem to be missing; they could be somewhere on the cutting room floor.

One final note: “Girl 6” is pretty raunchy, even for an R-rated movie. This could be an embarrassing choice for a first date. And it’s not even a great choice anyway, date or not.

Hopefully, “Girl 6” signals the beginning of a great career for Theresa Randle, and not the beginning of the end for Spike Lee.

Grade: C+