Premise: A middle-aged woman begins dating a man and makes a new friend not realizing that the man and friend used to be married.
What to do about a movie that I liked everything about except the central conflict? This is a pretty great movie about being in the empty-nester age where you don’t feel old or young. The cast is really tremendous. I have to assume the only reason Julia Louis-Dreyfus doesn’t do more dramedies like this is that she doesn’t feel like it, because she’s excellent in this. James Gandolfini is super charming. Toni Collette gets to be Australian! What’s not to like here? It’s a “good hang” of a movie.
I just can’t deal with Louis-Dreyfus keeping the secret for so much of the movie. I don’t even know that it feels like artificial conflict; dating and befriending exes without either knowing. It’s just so painfully awkward, and I don’t deal with awkward well. I spend the whole time thinking about all the easy ways she could’ve made the situation better or easier. Any non-recommendation coming from me is on me and not really the film’s fault. The film is doing what it intends to well.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment