BEFORE: OK, I tore apart the whole February line-up and put it back together again, I went deep catalog into the cast lists, and found some links among B-level actors, character actors and even some cameos (I assume) to tie everything together in a different order. I had to give up a few things, like having the word "heart" in the title of the film that I'll watch on Feb. 14, but such is life.
It looks like I fell into a trap when I put all the Julia Roberts films together - that's just not going to allow everything to link to everything else. I had to divest myself of that notion, too, to get it done. That seems to be a common occurence this year, I watched all the Bruce Willis films on the list together, except for one, and all of the Edward Norton films together, except for one.
Tonight's selection was a no-brainer, though - Mae Whitman played Meg Ryan's younger daughter in "When a Man Loves a Woman", and carries over to play Sandra Bullock's daughter in tonight's film.
THE PLOT: Birdee Calvert must choose between her morals and her heart after her husband divorces her and a charming young man, who her daughter disapproves of, comes back into her life.
AFTER: There's a spoof of the "Star Wars: Episode VII" trailer going around, showing what that film might look like if Wes Anderson were directing it. This film is sort of like what a Hollywood romance film might look like if Wes Anderson directed it, and was asked to turn down the quirk about 50%. By that I mean there's a lot of odd things here, like taxidermy and a kid who dressed in all sorts of elaborate costumes - one day he's a frog, the next he's Charlie Chaplin. Oh, sure, like a 7-year old kid has any idea who Chaplin was.
The pacing's kind of off with this one, though, because we all know where it's going to end up (just look at the poster), and it takes a loooong time getting there. And along the way there's confusion at every turn, mostly because all of the different characters are at odds with each other, because they all want different things and they're not honest with each other (or themselves) about what those things are. So confusion abounds.
Plus, the film repeats the exact same scenario about a dozen times (or at least it seems like it) - the main character encounters someone she knew in high-school, there's shock, surprise, "Oh, my God, you're back in town!" followed by either cattiness or...actually, just cattiness. This process wore thin after the third occurrence, but then kept happening again and again. We get it, she's back in town. If people hate her for coming back and still being attractive, well, then maybe she should have been nicer to them
20 years ago. Really, that's the lesson here? Beautiful people should have been nicer to the plain folk?
More therapeutic yelling tonight when her husband finally shows up in town, only it's not for a reconciliation - he's already moved on. Yeah, it sucks when people separate, and I agree that no man should have an affair with his wife's best friend, but if he's moved on, he's moved on. You can't unring that bell, so even though there's anger, what does it accomplish? She can be mad about her situation, but should he have stayed in a loveless marriage (from his side, anyway) just because she hadn't been brought up to speed?
The rest just seemed designed to create some of the most heart-breaking scenarios possible in a film. Yeah, into each life a little rain must fall, but this represents a series of downpours. If that's your thing, more power to you, I guess.
NITPICK POINT: The main character works in a photo lab, and the fickle machine visibly fails during the printing of pictures, but unless another mistake was made in developing the negatives, they could have just re-printed the photos from the undamaged negs. It's odd that no one thought to do that.
Also starring Sandra Bullock (last seen in "Gravity"), Harry Connick Jr. (last seen in "Memphis Belle"), Gena Rowlands (last seen in "Another Woman"), Michael Paré (last seen in "The Philadelphia Experiment"), Cameron Finlay, Connie Ray, with cameos from Bill Cobbs, Kathy Najimy (last seen in "The Hard Way"), Rosanna Arquette (last seen in "The Whole Nine Yards").
RATING: 5 out of 10 scary stuffed cats
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