leonblackwood
Review: I found this storyline to be weak and a bit silly. If your going to fake your own death, surely your going to change the way you look and try and keep undercover. Anyway, the director really didn't think the whole storyline through and the acting, from these 2 A-listers, wasn't that terrific. The way that Colin Firth's character thoroughly planned his own death to become a golf pro, ditching his son in the process, was a recipe for disaster right from the beginning and when Blunts character was added to the mix, it just made things worse. The love story was predictable and the ending was very sketchy. Basically the director left it up to the audience to make up there own mind about Firth's character returning to reality, which could have been written much better. Anyway, I did loose interest halfway through the movie and I struggled to keep my eyes open. Disappointing! Round-Up: Colin Firth's career really does have it's up and downs. After winning the Oscar for The King's Speech, which he did deserve, and starring in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, he hasn't really starred in any major roles. With the release of Before I Go To Sleep coming out soon, maybe this will bring him back to the limelight. Emily Blunt seems to act the same in all of her movies, but she has been cast in some big budget blockbusters. From The Devil Wears Prada to the Edge Of Tomorrow, I doubt that this low budget movie will damage her career. As the movie is based around these 2 characters, there isn't that much to say about the rest of the cast, but I was expecting something better from these 2 major stars. Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $208,000 (Terrible!)I recommend this movie to people who are into there dramas about a man faking his own death to work in a gold club. 3/10
Tony Heck
"So you just ditched Wallace Avery for a total strangers half baked promise?" Wallace Avery (Firth) is a divorced man who hates his job and his life. Wanting to start fresh he decides to stage his own death and head to Indiana to become a golf teacher. Changing his name to Arthur Newman he is on his way when he meets a woman named Mike (Blunt). Both on the run from their own lives the begin to assume other people's identities but memories of their old lives begin to creep back up. This movie first and foremost has great acting and is very interesting and worth watching. On the other hand though it is a little slow in parts and seems repetitive. This is a movie of fiction but has the feel of a true story. I do recommend this movie but it isn't really a movie you can watch over and over because it is pretty depressing. It's hard to talk about this movie with out giving anything away and it really is a pretty good movie but don't expect a happy movie. Overall, a good movie with great acting that is worth watching but be prepared. I give it a B.
Hot 888 Mama
In an obvious homage to (if not an outright rip-off of) Arthur Miller's seminal play about facing life in the fast lane of corporate America when a guy is a tortoise, not a hare, Miller's "successful" suicide Willie morphs into a slightly more imaginative "fake" suicide Wallace Avery, who dubs himself Arthur Newman (as in a New Man, get it?) in an attempt to use upwards of $50,000 from his savings account to start a new life. Despite giving himself the first name of a guy married to Marilyn Monroe (Miller), this "fake" Arthur is not a successful author when it comes to writing a fairy tale ending. Instead, he hooks up with an even bigger whacko, Mike (played by Emily Blunt) who is burdened by the urge to impersonate her institutionalized paranoid schizophrenic twin sister, whose condition drove their mom to suicide! Naturally, "Arthur" and "Mike" decide that the best step toward making a happier future for themselves is to stage a series of role-playing home invasions. Is this enough to carry a light comedy? I've seen a lot worse.
TruthSpeaks
The bad reviews are right; this movie is boring and pointless. The principle reason is the script. There's just nothing there. It's hard to see why, out of the countless scripts Hollywood has to choose from, this one was made into a movie and brought to a theater near you. Colin Firth and Emily Blunt are wasted in this piece of nothing. To make it worse, you are seeing an especially frumpy version of Colin Firth, made to look like a middle-aged Rotarian in the seventies, aviator glasses and all. The premise is that he is a floor manager for UPS, with a fiancée and a son. He just decides to abandon them by faking his own death so he can be a golf pro in the Midwest using a fake identity. His character is blank and bland with no interesting characteristics. Even his flight from reality is bland. Emily Blunt plays a bad girl who is also running away, but there's nothing really interesting there either. I walked out of the movie half way through when the characters were supposedly getting together while pretending to be an elderly couple (don't ask). Most theaters chains have a refund policy. They will refund your money if you leave in the first half hour or fifteen minutes of the movie.
AD
