BEFORE: I'm having difficulty getting back in the swing of things - I was away all last week and that was just too much down time, I'm not used to being at home all day, every day. It doesn't help that the theater is essentially closed all week because of the upcoming holiday weekend. Really, I need something to do with my time besides watching movies and making plans to start organizing some comic books, only I never really get around to that. Going anywhere or doing anything fun would involve spending money, and I don't feel comfortable doing that right now, being under-employed - so I'm sleeping later and later and I don't think that's helpful either. I feel like I'm stuck in a cycle that I can't get out of - at least yesterday I applied for 7 or 8 jobs, but I didn't hear anything back yet, that's going to take some time. So I'm doing what I can to pass the time at home, catching up on the season finale of "The Amazing Race" that I missed, and then there's "Survivor" tonight, not much else to do.
Dakota Fanning carries over again from "The Equalizer 3".
THE PLOT: A philanthropist meddles in the life of a newly-married couple in an attempt to relive his past.
AFTER: OK, it's another weird one tonight - this is a film about a guy with a lot of personal problems, but he hides them really well, because he uses his wealth to do so. These problems are hidden from the audience at first, too, so it takes a while for us to realize that this person might not be what he seems - still, there's the feeling that something is bound to tear down the facade at some point, but we all have to play the waiting game.
Yes, there was a car accident in the past, and Francis Watts survived, but he lost his two closest friends, a married couple, Bobby and Mia. "Franny" and Bobby were working together to build a hospital for sick children, we presume that the work went forward without Bobby, the medical expert, Francis saw the process through, but what kind of toll did that take on him, what was the personal cost?
Years later, he gets a call from Olivia (aka "Poodles"), the daughter of the couple, and in reconnecting he finds out that she is pregnant and married to Luke, a doctor. Immediately Francis offers her husband a job, before even meeting him, and then before you know it, he's got them moving back to Philadelphia and he's bought the house Olivia grew up in, so that she can raise her child there. The noble gesture just seems a bit too generous, and it leads us to wonder if the benefactor might have another agenda, or if he's just trying to make up for the mistakes of the past.
Francis also appoints Luke to the hospital's board and offers to pay off his student loans, which again, seem like grand gestures made with good intentions, and again, lead us to wonder if there might be more going on than is initially evident. Perhaps Francis just needs someone to talk to, or maybe he's just got control issues, but when we start to see signs that he never really got over the trauma of the accident, and might be using certain substances to deal with the mental and physical pain, a clearer portrait of the lonely billionaire starts to emerge. He may not be psychotic, but at the very least he's some kind of addict. Also, NITPICK POINT, for someone who says he prefers to be alone, Francis sure seems very clingy,
Sure, there was potential here for a much darker story, but this film never set out to be like "Fatal Attraction" or even "The Proposal", clearly there were directions that it could have taken but didn't, it chose a much more subtle path to make its point. The downside there is that it might seem boring when you think of how restrained it turned out. Not a lot happens, that is, eventually Francis admits that he needs to go to rehab, and that's that. This definitely feels like the kind of movie you should watch, provided you've seen over 5,000 other movies and there just aren't too many other choices left.
Directed by Andrew Renzi
Also starring Richard Gere (last seen in "The Kid Stays in the Picture"), Dylan Baker (last seen in "How to Deal"), Cheryl Hines (last seen in "Think Like a Man Too"), Theo James (last seen in "How It Ends"), Brian Anthony Wison (last seen in "Glass"), Justin Goncalves, Dennisha Pratt (last seen in "Paranoia'), Matthew Daisher, Michael Daisher, Roy James Wilson (last seen in "Good Time"), Clarke Peters (last seen in "Mona Lisa"), Robert Kelly, Jeffrey Cousar, Matt Myers, Edward Rendell (last seen in "In the Shadow of the Moon"), Lyssa Roberts (last seen in "How Do You Know"), Erica Cho (last seen in "Spoiler Alert"), Terez Land, Erica Lynne Arden, Ian Bonner (last seen in "I Don't Know How She Does It"), Deidre Washington.
RATING: 4 out of 10 colorful scarves
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