A decent enough watch as the leads are lovely, as is the great Joe Mantegna. Overall the film looks great with really nice directing. However, the story is a cleched, bizarre mess, packed full of unexplained situations.
The plot is silly, the characters are totally underdeveloped, especially Annabelle, who is one of the most poorly written characters of recent times, and they all do things that make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Some problems I had with the film (in no particular order):
Why does Elvis dislike Annabelle? It appears to be because he has a chip on his shoulder about her being a popular cheerleader at school, & he wasn't in the "in crowd" but that just doesn't make sense, & we are given no background as to why he would feel that way.
Why would Elvis have been unpopular anyway? He is an attractive, smart young guy whose father has a successful business? (embalming sure, but still)
Why on earth are the police even looking for Annabelle, when they know she has just gone away for a while of her own accord, she is NOT a missing person?
Why did they run away together when the police realise she's been at his house? Again, they're not in trouble with the police & haven't done anything wrong??
Why doesn't Elvis just get his embalming license already! This is never explained.
Why did Elvis' mother commit suicide? Again, never explained.
How can anyone actually think that Charlie is capable of contining his embalming business, when he is obviously not right physically or mentally?
Why on earth would Annabelle want to go & stay at the embalmers house to get away, who she doesn't know from Adam?? WTF? If she's so popular wouldn't she have other friends she could stay at - or a motel?
Why would either of them decide to kill themselves? There is really no build up to this at all?
Girls with eating disorders don't just die suddenly from heart attacks, espcially when they aren't THAT skinny! And again, why did she suddenly wake up on the table, when she was pronounced dead? Yup, never explained.
Blake Lively herself is lovely, but Annabelle's character has absolutely ZERO substance, and makes no sense! I mean, who is she? What kind of person is she? She is a popular beauty queen who's mother pushes her into it obviously but we actually have no background on her or her mother whatsoever. What is done to show us that she doesn't love that life? Or that she is really a sweet hometown girl who knows how to drive a tractor, paint a house & plant a field! You can't just tell us - you have to SHOW us! (My biggest annoyance of this film, and of most recent films)
So there you go. I've no doubt plenty of shallow folk will love this film - admittedly it does look good. But if you are looking for a film with substance - this is definitely not for you.
The plot is silly, the characters are totally underdeveloped, especially Annabelle, who is one of the most poorly written characters of recent times, and they all do things that make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Some problems I had with the film (in no particular order):
Why does Elvis dislike Annabelle? It appears to be because he has a chip on his shoulder about her being a popular cheerleader at school, & he wasn't in the "in crowd" but that just doesn't make sense, & we are given no background as to why he would feel that way.
Why would Elvis have been unpopular anyway? He is an attractive, smart young guy whose father has a successful business? (embalming sure, but still)
Why on earth are the police even looking for Annabelle, when they know she has just gone away for a while of her own accord, she is NOT a missing person?
Why did they run away together when the police realise she's been at his house? Again, they're not in trouble with the police & haven't done anything wrong??
Why doesn't Elvis just get his embalming license already! This is never explained.
Why did Elvis' mother commit suicide? Again, never explained.
How can anyone actually think that Charlie is capable of contining his embalming business, when he is obviously not right physically or mentally?
Why on earth would Annabelle want to go & stay at the embalmers house to get away, who she doesn't know from Adam?? WTF? If she's so popular wouldn't she have other friends she could stay at - or a motel?
Why would either of them decide to kill themselves? There is really no build up to this at all?
Girls with eating disorders don't just die suddenly from heart attacks, espcially when they aren't THAT skinny! And again, why did she suddenly wake up on the table, when she was pronounced dead? Yup, never explained.
Blake Lively herself is lovely, but Annabelle's character has absolutely ZERO substance, and makes no sense! I mean, who is she? What kind of person is she? She is a popular beauty queen who's mother pushes her into it obviously but we actually have no background on her or her mother whatsoever. What is done to show us that she doesn't love that life? Or that she is really a sweet hometown girl who knows how to drive a tractor, paint a house & plant a field! You can't just tell us - you have to SHOW us! (My biggest annoyance of this film, and of most recent films)
So there you go. I've no doubt plenty of shallow folk will love this film - admittedly it does look good. But if you are looking for a film with substance - this is definitely not for you.