It's hard to truly express my thoughts on the film in a cohesive whole because my thoughts throughout it changed.
The film definitely makes an emotional impact by the time it's all over. A truly effective impact in fact. The acting is pretty great on all fronts, even the lesser characters. Because there's so many turns in the film, it's crucial that spoilers are contained (even though it seems like the actors in interviews have no problem revealing the turn in the film 50 minutes in). That makes it unpredictable, and so I definitely didn't know what would happen from act to act. But therein lies the problem. Too many times the threads in the film are visible. You can see the mechanics working to advance the plot forward. "Contrived" is the word one can use. It doesn't always feel inorganic, the first act in particular being free of this. But the second and third acts definitely have more problems. The writing at times is weak. The narrative seems to be on the edge of falling down a rabbit hole and never recovering, but thankfully it never does.
The only other Cianfrance film I've seen is Blue Valentine and in that I noticed his incredibly textural, nuanced direction. You can definitely feel the same atmospheric and tonally focused direction here, but at times a conflict is felt between the directing and the structurally "contrived" script. Still, the contrivances and the definite holes in the logic of the script (and trust me, there's quite a few, to the point that it gets frustrating) aren't enough to hurt the film completely, and as it stands, it's still a pretty effective film. I've heard how audiences will have a love-hate relationship with the film, and with that I'm surprised. I find it to be a good, but very flawed, film, and an always intriguing one.
The film definitely makes an emotional impact by the time it's all over. A truly effective impact in fact. The acting is pretty great on all fronts, even the lesser characters. Because there's so many turns in the film, it's crucial that spoilers are contained (even though it seems like the actors in interviews have no problem revealing the turn in the film 50 minutes in). That makes it unpredictable, and so I definitely didn't know what would happen from act to act. But therein lies the problem. Too many times the threads in the film are visible. You can see the mechanics working to advance the plot forward. "Contrived" is the word one can use. It doesn't always feel inorganic, the first act in particular being free of this. But the second and third acts definitely have more problems. The writing at times is weak. The narrative seems to be on the edge of falling down a rabbit hole and never recovering, but thankfully it never does.
The only other Cianfrance film I've seen is Blue Valentine and in that I noticed his incredibly textural, nuanced direction. You can definitely feel the same atmospheric and tonally focused direction here, but at times a conflict is felt between the directing and the structurally "contrived" script. Still, the contrivances and the definite holes in the logic of the script (and trust me, there's quite a few, to the point that it gets frustrating) aren't enough to hurt the film completely, and as it stands, it's still a pretty effective film. I've heard how audiences will have a love-hate relationship with the film, and with that I'm surprised. I find it to be a good, but very flawed, film, and an always intriguing one.