To adequately deal with this movie's strength's and weaknesses, a few plot points must be frankly discussed. The cast is superb--- duh. Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott-Thomas, and Patrick Swayze do not need the likes of me to commend them. They are all great. Even the secondary and tertiary characters were also brilliantly cast. The movie was well-written, well photographed, and extremely well acted. So why is it only a '7' out of '10'? This is because of the way death was dealt a bit too easily. I know, it's a dark comedy, and killing folks is only pretend--- it's acting, and all of that. But momentarily taking a somewhat Freudian paraphrase, that there are no jokes, but, rather, truths told with a giggle.
How is it funny to kill a dog for offending the neighborhood with its barking? As annoying as that is, the dog's owner was just a lonely old man, who was mostly deaf. He couldn't hear his barking mutt. So how is it funny, even 'darkly' funny, to then kill the old fellow as well? We could hear the dog being hit over the head with a shovel, then yelping as it died. Sorry, I just find it too hard to joke about that.And the final scene--- that shook me a bit. I had been lead along a different path up to that point--- thinking, if not happy ending, at least a 'realistic' return to what actual human beings would do to resolve love affairs, family crises, mid-life ennui, and the like. Instead, we we are thrown off track completely, and the lovely young daughter, and her mother, the sensible and loving middle-aged wife, become mass murderers themselves. That was clearly taking an easy laugh, and a cheap shot ending.
The logic of the situation is faulty--- all those cowboy boots and bright yellow slickers in the shallow front-garden pond will surely be discovered soon enough (yes, yes, I know. It's a comedy, and I shouldn't worry about such details). But even in my 'suspended disbelief', even in my willingness to travel a bit in the fantastical world of movie-land, those murders were simply too much for me to handle and accept.
Otherwise, this was a '10'--- but I had to give it a nonetheless very generous 7.
How is it funny to kill a dog for offending the neighborhood with its barking? As annoying as that is, the dog's owner was just a lonely old man, who was mostly deaf. He couldn't hear his barking mutt. So how is it funny, even 'darkly' funny, to then kill the old fellow as well? We could hear the dog being hit over the head with a shovel, then yelping as it died. Sorry, I just find it too hard to joke about that.And the final scene--- that shook me a bit. I had been lead along a different path up to that point--- thinking, if not happy ending, at least a 'realistic' return to what actual human beings would do to resolve love affairs, family crises, mid-life ennui, and the like. Instead, we we are thrown off track completely, and the lovely young daughter, and her mother, the sensible and loving middle-aged wife, become mass murderers themselves. That was clearly taking an easy laugh, and a cheap shot ending.
The logic of the situation is faulty--- all those cowboy boots and bright yellow slickers in the shallow front-garden pond will surely be discovered soon enough (yes, yes, I know. It's a comedy, and I shouldn't worry about such details). But even in my 'suspended disbelief', even in my willingness to travel a bit in the fantastical world of movie-land, those murders were simply too much for me to handle and accept.
Otherwise, this was a '10'--- but I had to give it a nonetheless very generous 7.