BEFORE: Well, I mentioned the possible upset in the Best Actor race, so I'm taking credit for that. I'm saying I called 4 out of 5 races correctly, for an 80% success rate. (Sure, you can say I hedged my bets, but so what? Everyone these days does that "will win/should win" thing to cover their asses.) I'm very excited that "Birdman" won the Best Picture Oscar, I just wish that I'd believed in it a bit more so that I could have supported it whole-heartedly. It's not a perfect film (what is?) but in the end I rated it an "8" last month, that's really good for a film that isn't straight-forward sci-fi or superhero, and for a film that's as enigmatic as it is. When it comes to prediction, I guess I underestimated Hollywood's desire to suck its own dick by honoring a film about the process of acting.
Debra Messing carries over from "A Walk in the Clouds" - now do you see why I organized things this way? Now it's nothing but direct links from here until some time in mid-April, at least.
THE PLOT: Single-girl anxiety causes Kat Ellis to hire a male escort to pose as her boyfriend at her sister's wedding in an attempt to dupe her ex-fiancé, who dumped her a couple years prior.
AFTER: This is a film with a high buy-in, considering where it starts, on the morning of the day where a woman is about to fly to London for her sister's wedding AND she's about to meet the male escort she's hired (sight unseen) to go with her to make people jealous. That's a high, very specific level of drama for one day. It's also a bit odd that she's not confident enough to attend this event alone, but she's also confident enough to hire someone she can direct, in order to control the situation. It almost seems like a character conflict, being nervous, confident, anxious and still level-headed enough to concoct a plan.
As we've seen several times this February already, strange things happen in romances where deception is involved. One might predict, based on previous occurrences, that the deception represents a fantasy, which may be so thrilling that it threatens to become reality. Hey, call me crazy.
But first, of course, there is tension created by the situation. Will they be able to pull this off? Can two people act like they are in love without feeling actual love, because that would indeed be too complicated? Or are we all just over-thinking this? I know I probably am. This first situation doesn't seem like it's enough for a whole film, so fortunately there's a second plot here, which is the result of another deception, and seems more serious by comparison. But it's welcome, because I honestly don't see how they could have filled up 90 minutes of screen time otherwise.
All of this seems to suggest that honesty is the best policy, because awkward situations tend to get made more awkward when people don't speak the truth. And whatever awkward conversation you're avoiding having with your significant other is not going to be resolved over time, unless you start having that talk. That's good advice obtained from reading between the lines here.
Or, you can just take this as a reverse "Pretty Woman", where the genders are switched, if you're inclined to do so. God knows, that's probably how this was pitched in the first place.
Also starring Dermot Mulroney (last seen in "August: Osage County"), Amy Adams (last seen in "American Hustle"), Jack Davenport, Jeremy Sheffield, Holland Taylor (last seen in "Keeping the Faith"), Peter Egan, Sarah Parish.
RATING: 4 out of 10 powder blue suitcases
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