Sometimes it's a bit too easy to confuse a film thats well made with a film thats actually good. This is one of those films.
It's technically beautiful; great cinematography, interesting locations, thoughtful soundtrack, good cast... it checks all the boxes, and almost tricks you into thinking you're watching a movie that is way better than it really is.
But it all falls apart. Beyond the technical competence, the film is an outright disaster. Here's the big spoiler alert: They all die in the end. These guys made a suicide pact in college, and now, as adults, feel compelled to stick to it. Because everyone always has the best ideas in college. Makes total sense.
In a nutshell, these four guys were best friends in college, and were heavily into drugs also. After college, they continued to meet one week a year for a group drug binge at a rented mansion somewhere. Except now they're all middle aged and not really super happy about the direction their lives took (really groundbreaking stuff, I know), but the twist is that when they were kids, they made a drug-fueled pact that if they were unhappy as middle-aged men, they'd kill themselves. The super seriousness of this pact is underscored by the fact that they signed their names in blood.
Naturally, they follow through (I mean, don't we all look back on our college years as when we were the most logical?)... but only after a lot of really predictable and silly lines of dialog are thrown around, like 'thats who you WERE man, and look at you NOW... you're not YOU anymore, none of us are' and 'if your college self could SEE you now he'd HATE what you became, man, how can you go on living like that?' and 'you signed it in BLOOD... that's your BLOOD on that contract, and that MEANS something, man'.
Yes, it's ridiculous, but these lines are delivered against great cinematography and cool music playing in the background, so you almost don't realize how inane the characters actually sound. I say almost, because ultimately this film can't hide from it's awfulness, and the longer you think about it, the clearer it becomes.
Really it comes down to a group of privileged, self indulgent upper-middle class men acting like complete children for a week, and then dying. Oh, you didn't become a great novelist like your wanted? Cry me a river, dude.
It's technically beautiful; great cinematography, interesting locations, thoughtful soundtrack, good cast... it checks all the boxes, and almost tricks you into thinking you're watching a movie that is way better than it really is.
But it all falls apart. Beyond the technical competence, the film is an outright disaster. Here's the big spoiler alert: They all die in the end. These guys made a suicide pact in college, and now, as adults, feel compelled to stick to it. Because everyone always has the best ideas in college. Makes total sense.
In a nutshell, these four guys were best friends in college, and were heavily into drugs also. After college, they continued to meet one week a year for a group drug binge at a rented mansion somewhere. Except now they're all middle aged and not really super happy about the direction their lives took (really groundbreaking stuff, I know), but the twist is that when they were kids, they made a drug-fueled pact that if they were unhappy as middle-aged men, they'd kill themselves. The super seriousness of this pact is underscored by the fact that they signed their names in blood.
Naturally, they follow through (I mean, don't we all look back on our college years as when we were the most logical?)... but only after a lot of really predictable and silly lines of dialog are thrown around, like 'thats who you WERE man, and look at you NOW... you're not YOU anymore, none of us are' and 'if your college self could SEE you now he'd HATE what you became, man, how can you go on living like that?' and 'you signed it in BLOOD... that's your BLOOD on that contract, and that MEANS something, man'.
Yes, it's ridiculous, but these lines are delivered against great cinematography and cool music playing in the background, so you almost don't realize how inane the characters actually sound. I say almost, because ultimately this film can't hide from it's awfulness, and the longer you think about it, the clearer it becomes.
Really it comes down to a group of privileged, self indulgent upper-middle class men acting like complete children for a week, and then dying. Oh, you didn't become a great novelist like your wanted? Cry me a river, dude.