If you are a Netflix member and have rated a lot of movies on their site, they will suggest a rating for movies you haven't seen yet. It suggested I would think this is a pretty good movie, they were wrong. As they have been before. I don't trust it.
The first impression is one of dark and dirt. It is shot in a color style that evokes depression. The characters aren't happy, the situations aren't joyous, and this mood never changes so I found it hard to watch and enjoy.
We never find out any reason why, but Paul Dano as Lucas is without job or family and lives in a box under an elevated street in New York City. He opens a can, we don't know if it is tuna or pet food, he gives some to a kitten and eats the rest himself. Eventually he gets depressed to make a feeble attempt to kill himself, and doesn't succeed, but ends up in the hospital. There he meets Jacques.
We've seen Brian Cox in so many American roles it is easy to forget he is from Scotland. Here he is Jacques, gruff and anti-social owner of the Oyster Bar, which quit serving food after an oyster killed a customer for the prior owner, so now he only serves alcoholic drinks. In his quirkiness he has 3 rules ... no "walk-ins", no women, and no being nice to customers. He has had several heart attacks and presently finds himself sharing a hospital room with Lucas.
Jacques finds himself on the heart donor list, but believes he will die soon. So his bright idea is to bring Lucas into his bar and spartan upstairs apartment, train him to run the business, then give it to him when he dies.
I believe there is a good movie within the framework of that plot, but it isn't the one they made. Too negative most of the time, too dark and depressing, and with an ending that the filmmakers must have thought, "Here's an ironic way to make all this come together."
SPOILERS: Lucas is a slow learner, by the standards that Jacques has set. With too much empathy for others, he takes in a French Flight Attendant who is afraid to fly anymore, and she asks him to marry her right away so she will have a residence. He does, and all this just infuriates Jacques more. But in the end, Jacques softens up, still has a bad heart and, when the duck being fattened for the holidays escapes to the street, Lucas is hit and killed, his "good heart" goes to Jacques, who we see recuperating on a tropical beach.
The first impression is one of dark and dirt. It is shot in a color style that evokes depression. The characters aren't happy, the situations aren't joyous, and this mood never changes so I found it hard to watch and enjoy.
We never find out any reason why, but Paul Dano as Lucas is without job or family and lives in a box under an elevated street in New York City. He opens a can, we don't know if it is tuna or pet food, he gives some to a kitten and eats the rest himself. Eventually he gets depressed to make a feeble attempt to kill himself, and doesn't succeed, but ends up in the hospital. There he meets Jacques.
We've seen Brian Cox in so many American roles it is easy to forget he is from Scotland. Here he is Jacques, gruff and anti-social owner of the Oyster Bar, which quit serving food after an oyster killed a customer for the prior owner, so now he only serves alcoholic drinks. In his quirkiness he has 3 rules ... no "walk-ins", no women, and no being nice to customers. He has had several heart attacks and presently finds himself sharing a hospital room with Lucas.
Jacques finds himself on the heart donor list, but believes he will die soon. So his bright idea is to bring Lucas into his bar and spartan upstairs apartment, train him to run the business, then give it to him when he dies.
I believe there is a good movie within the framework of that plot, but it isn't the one they made. Too negative most of the time, too dark and depressing, and with an ending that the filmmakers must have thought, "Here's an ironic way to make all this come together."
SPOILERS: Lucas is a slow learner, by the standards that Jacques has set. With too much empathy for others, he takes in a French Flight Attendant who is afraid to fly anymore, and she asks him to marry her right away so she will have a residence. He does, and all this just infuriates Jacques more. But in the end, Jacques softens up, still has a bad heart and, when the duck being fattened for the holidays escapes to the street, Lucas is hit and killed, his "good heart" goes to Jacques, who we see recuperating on a tropical beach.