Spoilers herein.
Peter Yates is a competent director, very serious about delivering on the theatrical values. He only does well when the script is precise. And what we have here is a lesson in precision.
This could only have been written by someone who teaches writing for a living; it relies on so many tricks of the popular pen that like Waller (`Bridges of Madison County') and Sparks (`Message in a Bottle') that you feel dirty and guilty afterward for having actually enjoyed that hot dog.
Grandpa here is not the main character, instead the center is a big hole left by people who have died: first Dad, then Mom, then Wife. Swirling around that hole are vignettes whose only purpose is to sharpen the focus on its emptiness.
The thing that works here is the amazing Julianne Moore, who enters and carries herself in a manner calculated to exit memorably. The previous year she reinvented layered acting with `Vanya' and then dove into five films in a year. These five are all over the place, each one a perfect sonnet of acting; all are trivial projects. All are raised by what she does.
The only string this film doesn't pull is the dog. There isn't one.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
Peter Yates is a competent director, very serious about delivering on the theatrical values. He only does well when the script is precise. And what we have here is a lesson in precision.
This could only have been written by someone who teaches writing for a living; it relies on so many tricks of the popular pen that like Waller (`Bridges of Madison County') and Sparks (`Message in a Bottle') that you feel dirty and guilty afterward for having actually enjoyed that hot dog.
Grandpa here is not the main character, instead the center is a big hole left by people who have died: first Dad, then Mom, then Wife. Swirling around that hole are vignettes whose only purpose is to sharpen the focus on its emptiness.
The thing that works here is the amazing Julianne Moore, who enters and carries herself in a manner calculated to exit memorably. The previous year she reinvented layered acting with `Vanya' and then dove into five films in a year. These five are all over the place, each one a perfect sonnet of acting; all are trivial projects. All are raised by what she does.
The only string this film doesn't pull is the dog. There isn't one.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.