Had been really excited about seeing this at the LA Film Festival. Other festival films had been excellent. This one really disappointed. And the audience also thought so...
Mostly at a festival screening, the audience of movie buffs applaud at the ending, and stay through to the end of the credits. For this bomb, there was no applause, just a puzzled sigh of relief when it finished, and the audience bolted like they do in a multiplex - the theater was practically empty by the time the credits finished rolling.
It had the feeling of a high school play, written and performed by a high school drama group, with the exception of the three seasoned actors who did a valiant job to breathe some life into the narrow characters they had been saddled with, with way too many unnecessary lines.
Too many characters, that were lightweight or had non-existent back stories. The "sunrise- sunset" device was way overused and became tedious. Dialog and editing was way too loose with many pauses that served no purpose. Doubt if there was much on the cutting room floor, as there were many scenes in there that did nothing to advance the story or give more depth to the characters.
Half the dialog consisted of a group of unexplained twenty-somethings getting drunk and accusing each other of gayness. This alone could been edited to trim 20 minutes from the overly long film. Script did not reflect a great depth or breadth of life experience, and often came across as corny.
A few good moments - the father and son scene in the convenience store, the smartass getting smacked in the face, and some of the acting by the older actors, particularly Loggia, whose angry and credible racism made me genuinely uncomfortable.
But the ending did not deliver any real emotional payoff, and any chance of plot payoff was lost long before the ending finally arrived.
And the main credits - cute device, but quickly became as tedious as a child who won't stop asking the question "Why?" over and over.
Which leads me to my final question on this movie, "Why?"