Hands down the thing I miss most about my pre-Will life is going to the movies (okay sleep and easy mornings too). I used to go all the time. I love to go by myself or I’ll venture with pre-screened people who follow the rules….no sharing of popcorn and no talking after the previews are over. Lately, I’ve been trying to recapture it because I realize how much I truly miss it. So, instead of playing tennis on Thursday nights, I’m keeping my sitter and hitting the flicks. My thighs are already standing up in revolt but I’m happy about it.
Over the last three weeks, any spare hours I’ve had, I’ve been at the movies. I’ve seen The Kings Speech, The Fighter, Black Swan and 127 Hours. All really, really good.
The one I really wanted to see was The Kids Are Alright. We rented it in Texas and WHAT A COSMIC LETDOWN!!! I am still googling ‘The Kids Are Alright overrated’ daily to see if others agree with me. It’s on all these top ten lists. Golden Globe nominations. I thought it was terrible.
Here’s the trailer if you don’t know what I’m talking about….
I was curious to see how they would handle the whole ‘meet the donor’ thing as, I’ve said before, I really hope Will wants to meet his when he’s 18 (and now I really hope he looks like Mark Ruffalo when and if he does). Also, the movie stars Julianne Moore who is my favourite actress.
The trailer looks good. The movie is not. It’s offensive. I’m not a lesbian but I’m offended for all who are. The couple – sooo stereotyped. Then they’re having trouble and one of them immediately turns to a man? Really? Couldn’t it have been MORE effective to have them be friends – sort of an ’emotional affair’? Speaking of affairs, the lesbian sex between the married couple is hidden under the sheets but Julianne and Mark are seen banging all over the place (not that I minded…but still total double standard!).
And the one point that a reviewer brought up that I hadn’t considered. Where was the focus on the boy, who was the one really wanting to meet his bio-dad, and how he handled the whole non-existent male figure entering his life? This is what I’m curious about with Will. He has tons of male role models but those closest to him are women. If he does choose to meet, and have a relationship with his bio-dad, how will he handle the sudden thrust of male hormones? In the movie he meets him and is like ‘whatevs’ and the story goes on.
My girl Julianne serves up the only redeeming part to the movie with a really eloquent monologue about marriage. I’ve googled it for you so you can save the two hours and the six bucks to rent it. Go see The Kings Speech and on Jan. 16th if you hear a weird high pitch screaming noise – it’s me yelling at Annette Bening for winning the Golden Globe.
Your mom and I are in hell right now and the bottom line is marriage is hard. It’s really f*&%in’ hard. It’s just two people slogging through the shit, year after year, getting older, changing — f*&%ing marathon, okay? So sometimes, you know, you’re together so long you stop seeing the other person, you just see weird projections of your own junk. Instead of talking to each other, you go off the rails, and act grubby, and make stupid choices, which is what I did. And I feel sick about it because I love you guys, and your mom, and that’s the truth. And sometimes you hurt the ones you love the most, and I don’t know why. You know, if I read more Russian novels… Anyway… I just wanted to say how sorry I am for what I did. I hope you’ll forgive me eventually. Thank you.
Good review! I think the movie was too hyped – which is always dangerous. I found AB contrived and JM too flaky. MR was ok but I just didn’t like the characters or relate to them at all. I agree with u that the kids perspective was totally missing. It could have bee mind-blowing to explore that. I also found JM and MR’s reship hard to believe – there was no build -up or any apparent emotional connection!
I too miss movies (sleep) more than anything. Now it’s such a production to go anywhere! I love your new Thursday tradition!
I didn’t think it was that great either, but I also liked Julianne Moore’s lines about
marriage…I expected more out of the whole movie, and I also thought the
characters were stereotyped. If I were in that marriage though, I think I’d get out!!
Maybe that’s why I’m single because it’s how I see marriage…sooo freaking hard…:)
Great input from your friend. I don’t think their relationship was stereotyped (although I personally didn’t like their chemistry) I thought the two women were stereotyped. The Type A over achiever – short hair – in control. And the hippy – long haired and free one. That’s what I meant by stereotyping. I did like the writing around their relationship – I just couldn’t get them together I guess.
I’m loving all these opinions though!!
Oh yah. And I actually hated her speech about marriage. It was so depressing! I would never stay married if that is how it felt. That was the most ridiculous part, in my opinion.
I enjoyed this movie. I didn’t LOVE it but I certainly found it worth seeing. However, I think that when representing such a personal and emotional experience you are bound to disappoint people. It is interesting because I chatted with a lesbian friend of mine and her favourite part was the affair JM had with the man! She said she could totally relate to the mid-life crisis, that JM was going through and it was pretty irrelevant whether he was a man or a woman. She felt a connection to him she hadn’t felt in a while. She felt sexy and alive. I think lesbian or straight if you have been with the same person for a long time you can relate to this.
I also really liked JM and AB’s relationship as I actually thought they were not stereotypes of lesbians but stereotypes of any married couple. It could have been a man and a woman in those roles. That is what I felt was most genuine and relatable.
I think the point with MR’s character was really well done. You suddenly have an instant connection to these people. An instant family but what does that mean? What are the boundaries?
I think it is definitely worth seeing.
I hate it when you go into a moving assuming you’ll love it, then it bombs. It’s been ages since I saw a movie in a theatre, and if I do go it’s usually on a girls’ night out so we see a cheesy romantic comedy. The movie I am presently dying to see in theatre is Black Swan. I tell my husband we should go but he’s yet to be convinced.
Great points – and I will say that at first, I said the same thing to people about the connection with Julianne and Mark’s character – but I do still think that an emotional affair is a greater betrayal – so I just feel it would have been more effective and maybe easier to digest….but hey, I didn’t write the screenplay!!!
Annette Benning’s character really grated on me in this movie. She was so unbelievably controlling and always in everyone’s faces. So when Julianne’s character emotionally connects with Mark Ruffalo’s, it didn’t seem strange. What I took from it was not that she was a lesbian having sex with a man but that she was a sexual being who found a connection with someone who shares a very intimate part of her life, i.e. her children’s biology. I think the stereotype is that we classify humans as either gay or straight when the reality is so much more complicated than that. Maybe the movie should have been called “It’s Complicated”…oh wait, that one had already been taken.
Shoot – I meant Annette… my bad. She’s always terrif.
I should have clarified…**this review is only my opinion**….I love to debate with people about movies and I do know that this is loved by many (not too many in the lesbian community I think though). Mark Ruffalo is seriously past the point of hot in this movie…if someone says what’s your type? I’ll say – please go see this and you will see. Hot, creative, unobtainable, unwilling to settle down…yup, that about covers it.
I also used to go the movies BC a ton and the TIFF always but rarely now. But I do rent when we are up north. Often the corner store rentals are lousy and I choose badly and have to apologize to all for choice (although- threw my teenagers out for the sex scenes!). We did rent this one and I liked it- let’s just say though that my bar is low after so many bad rentals. I just so seldom VEG and thought this was better than most that I rent so I was ez to please. An award? NO! A good movie- for me yes but I can see that it would have held more weight for you and did not deliver as it could have.
Ruffalo- delicious! And I thought JM was a great and believable character. PS not Ms Stone, Tracey- Annette Benning very tightly wound and quite funny with the whole trying to be cool and open although clearly severely A type. Loved the hair in the drain scene!
I don’t go to the movies nearly enough either. Le sigh. I’ll get back to going more often someday, but I think I prefer my nights off at the neighbour’s house, in their hot tub with a glass of wine, dreaming and scheming.
I’m super surprised that it was such a dud! The cast makes it note-worthy, you’d think… Mark Ruffalo is fantastic, and Julianne? Always excellent. Even Ms. Stone is usually palatable. Thanks for the tip though – I passed it over at the video-rental the other day, thinking I’d get it the next time. I’ll save the $$.
Yikes. The last movie I saw in a theatre was probably Notting Hill the night before my wedding almost 12yrs ago…