BEFORE: This one's an easy choice, with Dennis Quaid carrying over from "Far From Heaven". Sometimes it's difficult for me to determine which films "belong" in February, like how far can I stretch the definition of romance, or how can I be sure if a film is romance-y or relationship-y enough to qualify, if I haven't seen the film before? I'm forced to rely on the IMDB classifications, like this one is simultaneously a comedy, drama AND a romance. Or I rely on what I may have heard about a film from other sources, so I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't link to "Hard Candy" after this one, for example, despite the Ellen Page connection and the current presence of that film on my list in the "unlinkables" section.
Here's where my stats are really going to sink on TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" list, the programming for Monday, February 5 features these nominees and winners in the Best Documentary category:
6:45 am "The Sorrow and the Pity" (1969)
11:15 am "The Battle of Midway" (1942)
12:00 pm "The Sea Around Us" (1952)
1:15 pm "On the Bowery" (1957)
2:30 pm "Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel With the World" (1963)
3:45 pm "Freedom on my Mind" (1994)
5:45 pm "Four Days in November" (1964)
8:00 pm "An Inconvenient Truth" (2006)
9:45 pm "The Times of Harvey Milk" (1984)
11:30 pm "Woodstock: The Director's Cut" (1970)
3:30 am "Hearts and Minds" (1974)
5:30 am "The Secret Land" (1948)
Don't get me wrong, I've seen my share of documentaries, and I'm glad that TCM is giving them their due, because they're not usually part of their Oscar programming, but this is some DRY subject matter. A four-hour French doc about the Nazi occupation of France? A film about men on Skid Row in the 1950's? The JFK assassination, Harvey Milk's assassination, and global warming? Ugh, I'd rather watch anything else - if you ask me, they should have put this programming up against the Super Bowl, since 99% of people wouldn't be watching TCM today anyway, and those who would are the REAL film nerds who would appreciate these documentaries.
I'm hitting for just 2 out of 11 today, "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Woodstock", so my total films seen drops to 21 out of 57, or about 37%. I'm getting dangerously close to 1/3 instead of 1/2.
THE PLOT: Into the life of a widowed professor comes a new love and an unexpected visit from his adopted brother.
AFTER: My review tonight was delayed by the Super Bowl, I had to watch since the Patriots made it, but I guess you can't win 'em all. I finished this film around 2 am, then bagged and boarded some comic books, went to bed at 5 am and slept until nearly 3 pm. I usually like to get up at noon on Super Bowl Sunday, so I have time to accomplish a few things before the Puppy Bowl airs, but no such luck today, so I feel like I've been behind and playing catch-up all day. Snacking began at 3 and continued until about 5:30, then resumed again at kick-off. Well, it is our country's third biggest eating holiday, after Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wait, I forgot Easter. And Fourth of July BBQ's. Hell, they're all great eating holidays.
(At this point, I really can't wait for the Winter Olympics to start - not because I'm really into curling and figure skating, it's because all of the other networks sort of give up for 2 weeks, and I can really catch up on some TV during that break. I'm still watching some shows I taped in November, so I'm still seeing Christmas commercials and everything. I need to clear some VHS tapes and make some room on the DVR. Plus I have to watch 10 films in the next 9 days, if I want the best film to land on Valentine's Day...)
Anyway, this film is set in Pittsburgh (not Philadelphia, but at least I got the state right) at Carnegie-Mellon University, where the lead character is an English literature professor, and we catch up with him after the death of his wife (see, I told you this grief thing is an ongoing theme this year...) and he's not doing well. His son is attending his college for free (umm, NITPICK POINT, why does he live in the dorms, instead of at home? My college didn't let people live in the dorms if they resided nearby.) and his daughter is studying for the SAT's, while also basically running the house. Then his no-good adopted brother shows up, which turns out to be just in time to drive him around after an accident and a seizure.
Things start to look up when he finds out that the E.R. doctor who had his driver's license suspended is not only a former student who had a crush on him, but also attractive and available. But then things start to fall apart again, because he's still not in a good place in order to start dating again. I don't know about this, I realize that after his wife's death he might not be mentally ready to date, but I don't see how her death caused him to forget HOW to date. I think they sort of oversold this one - we're supposed to believe that in his grief, he's just come to hate everyone, I get that, but that shouldn't make him an idiot either where dating is concerned.
The weirder storyline involves the friendship formed between his smart daughter and her adoptive uncle. He takes her out drinking, they smoke pot together, probably because the uncle feels she needs to lighten up quite a bit, but this still seems like very inappropriate behavior for an uncle and niece to engage in. Then they have to deal with the fact that a sort of attraction has developed, which seems incestuous, only he's not her real uncle, so it kind of isn't. Only it still feels wrong, doesn't it?
So in the end I can't decide if the title is meant to be ironic or not, I mean a professor is usually a smart person, and a doctor generally is too, and the daughter's applying to Stanford, so she's supposed to be smart, yet all of them do things that might be considered not smart, so how am I supposed to justify all that?
One Asian actress is all over this film, appearing first as a student in Prof. Wetherold's class, then as some faculty member in his department who's on the staffing committee AND as the girl dating his son? How can the same character be all of these things at once - was there a shortage of actresses or something?
Also starring Sarah Jessica Parker (last seen in "The Family Stone"), Thomas Haden Church (last seen in "Spanglish"), Ellen Page (last heard in "My Life as a Zucchini"), Ashton Holmes, Christine Lahti, Camille Mana, David Denman (last seen in "Jobs"), Scott A. Martin, Don Wadsworth.
RATING: 6 out of 10 rejection letters
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