Delayed Reaction: Tallulah

The Pitch: Juno steals a baby.

This'll be a great movie to point out the difference between a reaction and a review. I write reactions of movies. This started because I didn't feel knowledgeable or articulate enough to write reviews. I'm better at that now to the point that my Movie Reactions function as Reviews. I still like the idea of the unorganized thought though. When you think too hard about something, you can trick yourself or be affected by outside influences. Reactions are honest and immediate. If I find a movie boring or if I was distracted while watching it, then I may end up not even talking about the film at all in the reaction. It's a loose system.

All this is building up to say that I didn't like Tallulah and it's all because of one thing that I couldn't get past: I don't like stories about the escalation of a lie or a bad decision. Call it a pet peeve or an aversion to lazy writing, but as soon as the story hinges on a lie that a character should know better than to keep up, I mentally check out. I think back to the 5th season of The Wire - the dual lies of McNulty's fake serial killer and the journalist who lied about his stories. That's what ruined that season for me. Similarly, Tallulah fails to diffuse or escape her situation repeatedly and I wanted to crawl out of my skin watching it. It's a shame too, because there's a lot of stuff in the movie I really liked. Oscar Nominee Ellen Page and Emmy-juggernaut Alison Janney are both excellent in this. It tackles issues of motherhood and aging so well and with touches I don't often see. However, the stealing of the baby and everything about it that follows lands uncomfortably close to farce and derailed my appreciation of the movie too often.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend