I saw this movie in the theatre when it came out a few years ago. Recently, I purchased a used copy of it at MovieStop thinking that I really enjoyed this film. After watching it last night, I remembered that I didn't think it was all that great in the first place. This movie could have been pretty cool, but it failed somewhat miserably. Why? There is an outstanding lack of motivation in the storyline & characters. The viewer is expected to just accept the characters' shortcomings, flaws, decisions, depressing situations, etc. without any background information. It's hard to have a relationship with the characters because of this. They are believable but only within the realm of the movie itself...it's virtually impossible to see them as being potential, real-life people. Now, if this was some fantasy movie, I'd be sympathetic, but it's not. Therefore it's troublesome that poor, little, waitress Jenna in a small town married to an awful excuse for a man is expected to be believable.
It's also difficult to see her relationship with her husband as believable. Earl, so incredibly selfish and needy, who scripts what Jenna should say and do to show affection, doesn't ever seem to pick up on her blatant sarcasm. Ever. Perhaps if they had given more background on how they met/why they got married/why they're still together, this wouldn't have seemed so out of place.
And then there's Jenna's relationship with her doctor. Again, there's no motivation for him to be having an affair with Jenna, other than physical attraction. But the movie tries to make his attraction to her more substantial than that. The portrayal of the doctor's wife gives the viewer no reason to dislike her or to see any reason why he's unhappy in his marriage.
Overall, this movie is unconvincing. While I like the idea, it simply doesn't read the way the director intended, perhaps.
Still, there are some things I adore about this film.
-the palette.
-the scenes that show her making pies or imagining new recipes.
-when she discovers how wonderful it feels to talk to someone who genuinely cares to listen.
-the moment she holds her daughter for the first time
That's it.
2 comments:
It sounds like it's no Roadhouse.
I've come to realize that some movies are full of real people and some are full of characters. Characters can only exist in the movie and are stereotypical and vacant. I guess these are more like caricatures. When a movie doesn't bother to give a reason for a perfectly sane person to be with another person who has no redeeming qualities, they become flat characters. Sometimes this works--it all depends on the kind of movie. Sometimes it seems characters need to be in a film to fill a certain slot. "We need a villain. We need a sympathetic character." Obviously, in this film it didn't work so well.
If you haven't seen Stranger than Fiction, you should. This movie is full of characters, but it works because the whole movie is about writing a story (with characters). No one is a real person, but it's completely irrelevant.
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