Chaos Theory is a story about choices, and the impact that each choice can have in a person's life. Frank's dilemma begins when he leaves 10 minutes late to present at a seminar. His wife set the clocks back in a misguided attempt to help him. From this point, his very structured life begins to unravel as he and his wife deal with mutual anger and misunderstandings with each other.
It's a fair dramedy, with many dark moments. I think that some of the subject matter was too dark for a romantic comedy genre. It tends to make the movie very uneven as it tries to go for funny moments with the coarse, tragic subject matter. I noticed that I was too hung up on the unfolding story to laugh at moments that may well have been funny in another setting.
I also had a real problem with Frank's wife. From her public challenge to find a suitor among her male friends, I found her to be annoying and conceded. As I found out more about her through the choices that she made and continued to make in the movie, I really found no reason to like her at all, let alone see a genuine reason for Frank to love her. The end of the story really seemed forced and trite. It seemed like Frank really just loved his daughter, and his wife was just an inconvenient afterthought. Really, I would think that a story with so many dark points would survive a more realistic ending between the husband and wife. It seemed like the writer was too timid to do that, and went for the Hollywood ending instead.
Also, the presentation of the story to Frank's daughter's bridegroom seemed like a horrible route. Was this story meant to settle this young man's nerves? What would this young man think of this family after hearing this story? The bridegroom was desperately trying to leave to get some air and take a walk. If I were him I would've preferred the walk.
Oddly enough though, I think that this was the best, most dramatic performance by Ryan Reynolds. It's too bad that such a performance was wasted on such uneven material. I think that with the right material, he could really be seen as a good, well-rounded actor. Unfortunately, this ain't it.
My wife gave this 7 stars. I guess she didn't have the problems that I did, but I also suspect that she has the hots for Ryan Reynolds. ;) As for me, I gave it 3 stars only for the performance of the actors. The story, subject matter and screenplay literally gave me knots in my stomach.
It's a fair dramedy, with many dark moments. I think that some of the subject matter was too dark for a romantic comedy genre. It tends to make the movie very uneven as it tries to go for funny moments with the coarse, tragic subject matter. I noticed that I was too hung up on the unfolding story to laugh at moments that may well have been funny in another setting.
I also had a real problem with Frank's wife. From her public challenge to find a suitor among her male friends, I found her to be annoying and conceded. As I found out more about her through the choices that she made and continued to make in the movie, I really found no reason to like her at all, let alone see a genuine reason for Frank to love her. The end of the story really seemed forced and trite. It seemed like Frank really just loved his daughter, and his wife was just an inconvenient afterthought. Really, I would think that a story with so many dark points would survive a more realistic ending between the husband and wife. It seemed like the writer was too timid to do that, and went for the Hollywood ending instead.
Also, the presentation of the story to Frank's daughter's bridegroom seemed like a horrible route. Was this story meant to settle this young man's nerves? What would this young man think of this family after hearing this story? The bridegroom was desperately trying to leave to get some air and take a walk. If I were him I would've preferred the walk.
Oddly enough though, I think that this was the best, most dramatic performance by Ryan Reynolds. It's too bad that such a performance was wasted on such uneven material. I think that with the right material, he could really be seen as a good, well-rounded actor. Unfortunately, this ain't it.
My wife gave this 7 stars. I guess she didn't have the problems that I did, but I also suspect that she has the hots for Ryan Reynolds. ;) As for me, I gave it 3 stars only for the performance of the actors. The story, subject matter and screenplay literally gave me knots in my stomach.