Technically speaking, Ten Tiny Love Stories' title is misleading, since its darker vignettes have less to do with love than with boredom, loneliness, curiosity, and a desperate need for human connection. Then again, a collection of 10 monologues, each filmed in a single, static take, is a tough sell under the best circumstances, and Ten Tiny Love Stories is sexier than, say, Ten Monologues Addressing Male-Female Relationships, or the film's original, more accurate title, Women Remember Men. Cinematographer turned writer-director Rodrigo García (son of Gabriel García Marquez) follows up his Sundance favorite Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her by once again working with a large, estrogen-heavy cast, but this time, his actresses work as soloists rather than as parts of a larger ensemble. Though defiantly talky and non-cinematic, Love Stories does have a loose structure. It begins with its actresses describing distinct events that made indelible impressions on them—an awkward blind date, a plane ride with a strangely attractive Cuban, a chance meeting with an old boyfriend—and it grows in scope and breadth with each monologue. At its best, Love Stories has the concise, evocative power of a terrific short story. García excels at plucking moments out of time and holding them up to the light in all their excruciating awkwardness. Consequently, the film soars during its early sequences, particularly during Kimberly Williams and Lisa Gay Hamilton's monologues, which viscerally capture the excitement, anticipation, dread, and confusion that accompany first encounters between potential lovers. But as Love Stories moves from details to the bigger picture, it loses much of its raw power. In the film's first half, the actresses address the camera as if it were some strange combination of friend and therapist, giving the movie a voyeuristic edge. The last few monologues lack that almost painful intimacy, particularly during mannered, actorly turns by Debi Mazar, Kathy Baker, and Deborah Unger. There's not much skin on display in Ten Tiny Love Stories, but during its first half at least, the film stays emotionally and psychologically explicit.