Changing Habits

Running time: 95 mins

Mired in a dead-end job at a third-rate Los Angeles boutique, a young artist with an attitude named Soosh (Moira Kelly) schemes her way into residency at a local convent in order to save enough money to escape to India and paint. She soon learns, however, that everything has a price and that, while the convent may be cheap, it certainly isn't free. Surly nuns, 5 a.m. kitchen duty and middle-of-the-night demands from lonely elderly residents often make the arrangement seem to be more trouble than it's worth. The young woman's anger is also stirred by a bitter resentment toward her artist father (Christopher Lloyd), who apparently and inexplicably abandoned her and her mother when she was a child. To protect herself from any further emotional pain, she adopts an exterior that is as icy as it is impenetrable. That is, until she is caught shoplifting in the local art supply store by Felix (Dylan Walsh), the young and handsome owner, who demands a dinner date in exchange for her freedom. At first she is stubbornly resistant, but gradually, the glacier that is Sush begins to thaw, thus opening her heart, not only to romance, but also to the world, her father, and to life itself. Local producer Abra Edelman returns to Cinequest after participating with Killer (a.k.a. Bulletproof Heart) in 1994. With exceptional performances by Moira Kelly (Unhook the Stars, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me), Dylan Walsh (Nobody's Fool), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future, Eight Men Out), Shelley Duvall (Nashville, Annie Hall) and Academy Award-Winner Eileen Brennan (Private Benjamin, Reckless), Changing Habits makes for a wonderful addition to Cinequest's program. --Pete Crane