I felt compelled to comment on this film after coming to this site to vote and seeing it had an 8.6 user rating; I almost fell out of my chair. Not that this is a bad film, it's just that a rating that high is ridiculous and misleading. Of course, only 13 people have voted so it's bound to come down somewhat-I wonder how many of these voters were involved with the film?
The film has some positive qualities. I have to say that overall what I liked most was the look of the film, very minimalistic, unpretentious and just a tad ethereal. The cast is good too, and the idea of trying to find oneself after college is an appealing theme.
The script is what ruins the film. It's on cruise control and things happen arbitrarily to the point where you begin to long for a cliché or three. This trait of the script really lets down the cast, since they are decent actors but even the best actors can't overcome mediocre writing. It bit off more than it could chew too-romance, finding one's self, overcoming personal issues, getting back together w/old friends...it just doesn't work. There's a lot of contrivance about too, particularly the initial meetings of the leads and how the protagonist's boss/friend happens to have contacts in the publishing industry so our protagonist (who of course is a great writer-if only he had the courage to share his work :)) can get published. I officially lost interest when the protagonist's coworkers had a philosophical discussion about mowing grass.
I probably sound harsh, but there was potential here and it's too bad it fell through.
I'll end this with two observations from the film that raised my eyebrow:
-when going inside the restaurant where his to-be girlfriend works, the protagonist is offered a job completely out of the blue by her boss.
-at one point the protagonist tells his girlfriend how, when he was younger, he stuck an action figure completely up his posterior. THAT is a new one by me folks.
The film has some positive qualities. I have to say that overall what I liked most was the look of the film, very minimalistic, unpretentious and just a tad ethereal. The cast is good too, and the idea of trying to find oneself after college is an appealing theme.
The script is what ruins the film. It's on cruise control and things happen arbitrarily to the point where you begin to long for a cliché or three. This trait of the script really lets down the cast, since they are decent actors but even the best actors can't overcome mediocre writing. It bit off more than it could chew too-romance, finding one's self, overcoming personal issues, getting back together w/old friends...it just doesn't work. There's a lot of contrivance about too, particularly the initial meetings of the leads and how the protagonist's boss/friend happens to have contacts in the publishing industry so our protagonist (who of course is a great writer-if only he had the courage to share his work :)) can get published. I officially lost interest when the protagonist's coworkers had a philosophical discussion about mowing grass.
I probably sound harsh, but there was potential here and it's too bad it fell through.
I'll end this with two observations from the film that raised my eyebrow:
-when going inside the restaurant where his to-be girlfriend works, the protagonist is offered a job completely out of the blue by her boss.
-at one point the protagonist tells his girlfriend how, when he was younger, he stuck an action figure completely up his posterior. THAT is a new one by me folks.