mariondowning-427-469344 A not even remotely good movie. The actors looked uncomfortable like they didn't want to be there and the American accents kept changing into Australian ones a lot (like they also did not want to be there). I usually enjoy Geena Davis' movies, but in this one her character was not endearing or even funny when she was supposed to be. I did not find the comments at the wake about Doug's deceased father funny- were they supposed to be? Without comedy and any characters to care about there is no dark humor.Were we supposed to feel sorry for Billy when he was trying to get out of admitting what he did with the bowling ball (even when his friend was begging him to admit it)? Where we supposed to egg him on when he was more interested in looking for a bowling ball that incriminated him than worrying that his friend's father was dead? Were we supposed to cheer when he got out of it and his friend's family had to live without the life insurance and their father was labeled as someone who killed himself? Were we supposed to celebrate when he was smoking dope with a girl and laugh when he robbed a store naked? Were we supposed to feel sorry for him when his brother in the nursing home didn't pay attention to self-centered Billy? Was this written by someone high on dope? Because it seems to be the only excuse for this accident. This movie should have been called "Stay away from Billy the uncaring narcissist or your death will be labeled an accident or suicide".

eucalyptus9 Dodgy is the word that comes to mind when thinking about this movie. There's some dodgy acting to the point of amateurism, particularly in scenes between Doug and Billy. Although perhaps it wasn't entirely the actors' fault. Maybe it was dodgy scene setup, dodgy directing, dodgy dialog. Even Geena Davis looked a bit non-plussed at times.Then there's the dodgy basic premise of the movie. It's called "Accidents Happen" but, as noted elsewhere, most of the incidents that happen to this family are the result of their own rank stupidity.The dodgiest scenes occur towards the end of the film. Mrs Conway lies to the police, forces one of her sons to lie, and compels the complicity of her other son, his friend and his family. So Mrs Post mouths "Thank you" to Mrs Conway during the bingo game. Why exactly? Her son didn't steal the bowling ball, or fire it off down the road to cause her husband to swerve and die, so he's not going to jail. All that Mrs Conway's lie has done is rob her of her husband's insurance money. And she's saying Thank You? But the grossest scene of irresponsibility and outrageous stupidity is yet to come. Billy decides, with the encouragement of his frail neighbour who has hidden the bowling ball although she looks as though she could barely lift it, to once more send it on its way down a public thoroughfare. So off it goes, winding its way till it ends up in a culvert, from where it comes crashing like a cannonball out onto a public road, to cause whatever unpredictable mayhem. Perhaps this time it could have smashed into a car containing a family returning from a day at the beach and killed them all. Crikey, that would have been hilarious. Instead, it crashes into the police car, which is presumably meant to be funny. What are Billy and his mother going to do when the police come calling? Lie again? Hopefully, the cops will dust it for finger prints and put Billy and the rest of his family in jail where they all belong. Now, THAT would be funny.

nullmovielover I recently ventured to the 8th Annual Tribeca Film Festival to see the anticipated film "Accidents Happen". I was aware that the wonderful Geena Davis was in the picture which enticed me but was unaware that the cast had a few outstanding younger actors. I expected a great film from the first scene but did not expect the outstanding, true and genuine performance that a young new shining talent - Harry Cook gave from start to finish. Every scene was honest & true there was an underlining depth that young actors rarely possess. I am never teary in films, but Cook's incredible performance brought me to tears on more than one occasion. 14 yr old Harrison Gilbertson also stood out in this film to me as someone you genuinely cared for. The cast were fabulous. It was an absolute pleasure to watch this film & Harry Cook stood out in my eyes as truly remarkable talent that the world has been searching for for quite some time. I'm very impressed by everyone's work & look forward to seeing more from them all in the future.Jane Griffin review-tribecafilm-accidentshappen09(C)

Turfseer Accidents Happen is a chronicle of the dysfunctional Conway family. I managed to catch it at the Tribeca Film Festival. It begins as a flashback to 1974; 7 year old Billy Conway is watering the front lawn when their unsavory next-door-neighbor Mr. Smolensky (we're told that he was a no-good philanderer by a narrator) accidentally sets himself afire and dies while barbecuing. The scene is done in super slow-motion and is photographed impressively. Nonetheless the director makes the mistake of relying on a narrator to explain the back story for the first ten minutes of the film (the narrator is quite annoying).The second accident is also described through the narrator. The Conways are driving home after attending a drive-in movie when they're all involved in a car accident. The daughter is killed and another son, Gene, is left a vegetable in an irreversible coma.We then flash forward to 1982 where we're introduced to the present day Conway family. Billy doesn't get along with his brother, Larry, who has a drinking problem. Their mother Gloria (played by Geena Davis) constantly relies on foul-mouthed epithets to berate her children and is on the verge of divorce from Ray, the emotionally distant father.Billy ends up befriending Doug Post, a teenager who lives next door. Together they shoplift items from a convenience store while wearing nothing more than ski masks. When Billy rolls a bowling ball down the street, Doug's father swerves his car to avoid it and ends up dying in the ensuing car wreck. The police conclude that the father committed suicide because there were no skid marks. Billy and Doug finally confess that they were responsible for the accident but Gloria convinces the police that the teenagers had made up the story in order for the Post family to collect the insurance money.The film ends with the death of comatose brother Gene. His death leads to a catharsis for the two living brothers and both parents embrace them at the end signaling a new beginning for the family.The film's scenarist can't decide whether we should laugh or cry for the victims of all the accidents that happen in first half of the film. Are we watching a black comedy as the narrator cheerfully chronicles the demise of the hapless Smolensky? And what about the unfunny scene where the Post family friend pays an overly emotional, over-the-top condolence call to the family following Mr. Post's death in the car accident? While Gloria still pines away for her dead daughter and bemoans the fate of her comatose son, she's more the stuff of black comedy with her foul language and odd behavior. The same goes for Ray's ditsy fiancé who is depicted as completely lame-brained.I had even more trouble with the second half of Accidents Happen. Now we're asked to have sympathy for all these quirky characters who we've grown to dislike in the first half. We now understand why the teenagers were acting out—they were unable to connect with their emotions due to earlier traumas where either family members were killed or severely injured. Everything is forgiven when Billy and Larry are able to 'emote' after Gene's death. If only adolescent angst was so easily resolved in real life! In the end, 'Accidents Happen' wants to have it both ways. As a black comedy, it seeks to laugh at the dysfunctional characters who inhabit a dysfunctional universe. But then the film's scenarists reverse themselves—the loonies are not loonies after all; in fact they're all a bunch of sensitive souls! If you believe in such transformations, then perhaps I can also convince you to buy a share of the Brooklyn Bridge.