My girlfriend really enjoyed this movie and thought I might as well, so we watched it last night on cable. I thought I might like it too, given the cast and interesting subject matter. But I didn’t.
Joan Allen is a smashing actress, but here she is very bland. I didn’t buy her anger, she didn’t intimidate me and only once did she evoke any emotion from me. Actually, I like Costner too, and while he nailed his character better than Allen -- the fact is the film on the whole is not very impressively acted. That’s probably because of the four daughters who are written rather thinly and never grab us emotionally.
At the outset, Joan Allen’s character realizes that he husband has left her and she allows herself to fall apart -- so she say’s. But she never really breaks apart. She, and the film’s title, claim that she becomes very angry -- but really -- all it seems is pissy to me. I didn’t see the fury. I didn’t see the heartache. I only saw someone get pissy. And the girl’s show almost no remorse that their father left. I think this is the key error in the story. We never see the kids broken up over their father’s sudden disappearance. Maybe that’s why we don’t take the daughters too seriously.
The film does host some beautifully written and directed scenes. The awkward invitations to sex between the Kevin and Joan characters are charming and fresh. And the one scene where writer/director Mike Binder as Shep the slimy producer mouths off to Joan’s character -- that is absolutely precious. I love that scene. Still, there’s a lot of stiff film in between. Not to mention the contrived scene set ups.
Lastly, instead of building, the film hangs on the hope that we’ll find the anger/tension thing interesting for almost 2 hours at which time, finally, Kevin’s character busts down a few doors “I’ve had enough.” What a nice scene and a great set up for resolution. But instead of the satisfaction we deserve for tolerating the pissy mother, we get a twist that eclipses much of the meaning of the film. And although Joan’s character finds some resolution -- it isn’t quite clear how or why.
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