The Object of My Affection

The Object of My Affection is a warm-hearted comedy about the paths and byways of love in the nineties, when gender roles and family structures are no longer what they were. Nina Borowski is a sweet social worker whose love life is a mess. She loves her boyfriend Vince, but he is too domineering and loud-mouthed for her to be able to stand living with him. At a party given by her wealthy sister Constance and her husband Sidney, her dinner partner, the university professor Robert Joely, tells her that he is about to end his relationship with his boyfriend George. When Nina gets talking to George later in the evening, she unwittingly puts her foot in it, for George does not know about his (ex-)boyfriend's plans. Out of sheer kindness, Nina offers him a place to stay should it prove necessary.

George moves in with Nina, much to the annoyance of Vince, which is understandable, since Nina and George behave as if they were a real couple. They do lots of things together; for example, they take dance classes. In fact they get on so well that George moves in permanently, and when Nina becomes pregnant by Vince, she wants to raise the child with George, not Vince. The question, however, is whether this arrangement is sustainable. Does Nina not see George as more than a friend, and how will things go when George comes home with a new guy? There are many complications before Nina finally seems to have got her life in order. All the film's characters win on love's merry-go-round except the elderly Rodney Fraser, who can only dream of 'the object of my affection'. He is a tragic figure in the midst of the comedy.

There are several scenes of a thoroughly Woody Allen-esque nature in the film. That applies not least to the scenes in which Alan Alda and Allison Janney appear as representatives of New York's liberal intellectuals.