'Twas okay. Some great performances make it tolerable. It's loaded with indie film cliches, and it never really has any kind of spark to make you interested in the film. You're left with a definite "so what?" feeling as the credits roll.

Considering the talent involved, disappointing, for sure.

C

C+


I pretty much agree with makeshift on this one. It was a weird film to watch. It tries to hard to come across as quirky. Basically, it is a generic indie. I know, these words seem to contradict each other, but that's true. A detached 20-something comes home to her estranged father, meets heartwarming quirky characters and learns acceptance, comes closer together with her family. You can throw a stone at a batch of indie flicks and you certainly will hit a couple of this kind.

That doesn't mean they are all bad. There are some really good ones (like Garden State) and some that are...well...like Winter Passing. The worst thing about it is that at the end you are definitely left with a "so what?" feeling. The movie moves along slightly and calmly and you don't ever even see any development in the characters.

The acting was good, no complaints there. Ed Harris' Salinger-esque reclusive writer was a bit weird of a character for Harris, but he did well. Zooey Deschanel did a fine job and Will Ferrell's understated calm performance came across very well too. It's the story that just fails to make a piint, fails to makie us care for the characters at all. The ending doesn't make things any better either.

This movie was BORING! Add to the fact that I didn't care a lick about any of the characters, and it didn't help anything. It was kind of hard to care about the lead character after she throws her kitten in a duffle bag and throws it in the water to drown and then does a shitload of drugs and whines and complain the whole film. Why am I supposed to care or be interested in her at all????

The only thing remotely interesting was Will Ferrell, who was low key but quirky enough to be halfway entertaining. However, the whole movie was very plodding and just not a fun watch on any level. My grade: D

Yeah...I don't know...the movie's just plain weird. I never got why we are supposed to care about anything that went on and what exactly was the point of the whole thing.

Though I did think that Deschnael pulled off a very good performance.

Hmm...

I guess I'll go against the flow here and say I actually liked it, simply because it was so subdued. Granted, there wasn't much that actually happened, but, I guess to me it just felt more "real" for a family coming back together sort of film.

Anyway, all of the performances were great. I enjoyed it, it isn't exactly memorable, but somehow I just thought it worked. B-