CitizenCaine
What begins as a promising feature film directorial debut by actor Jason Theroux turns into a thinly disguised formulaic romance of opposites. In this case, the opposites are Billy Crudup as a children's book author who is supposed to write a follow-up book and Mandy Moore as an illustrator looking for her first big break. The 15 year age gap between the two leads is somewhat of a problem, but the quirkiness of Crudup's character and his obsessions render him childlike, which is the appeal he has to Moore. Moore is self-conscious about prostituting herself for money in working with someone she detests, yet she certainly doesn't know how to handle her personal life between co-worker Crudup and a former English professor who ditched her. Crudup is good in his role, but he's very unlikable. Moore is very likable, but her character is full of inconsistent personality traits it seems. The film does OK until the inevitable choice Moore has to make, and the ending is downright silly and contrived. Bob Balaban as the publisher, Tom Wilkinson as the former illustrator, and Dianne Wiest as Moore's mother all lend credibility to the proceedings, but it's not enough to sustain a film that ultimately turns conventional and formulaic in the second half. ** of 4 stars.
cwang22
I know people will probably throw rocks at me but I definitely didn't like this movie. I know it was intended to be like an "indie flick" or dramatic comedy but I think this movie is a mess. It's not fun, nor inspiring, nor real. The point is, this movie was so boring from beginning to the end, I actually saw myself fast-fowarding plenty of times. Only good part of the movie was the acting of Tom Wilkinson. thumbs down to this one, if you're expecting to see a good romantic comedy, stay away of this one and look for "about a boy", "definetely, maybe", if you're looking for an indie movie, try "Garden State", "Juno". This one is simply gonna set you in a bad mood. Amazing how overrated this got at IMDb.
Pankaj Kalwani
I just finished watching this movie and thought I should pen down my thoughts. I would like to add a few disclaimers before recommending it.For viewers who expect a romantic comedy, this is not your average rom-com genre movie. And for avid movie buffs, this ain't the first attempt of its kind either. This has shades of Trust (1990), Music and Lyrics (2007), As Good as it Gets (1997) and a few others.But the familiarity worked for me. Also, not knowing what the movie was about did work for me too.Watch this if you want a romance with quirky and intelligent characterization. Considering, it is both the writer's and the director's debut feature film, it is fantastic.
bzimmer-1
I too saw this film at Sundance and was very disappointed. The film started out with great promise as an edgy, quirky film- especially Billy's Crudup's character- and then turned into any other romantic comedy that we've seen before. It was incredibly predictable, and I was very surprised that it took this turn.I was hoping for more from Justin Theroux on this one. The cast is good, in particular, Billy Crudup and Tom Wilkinson, but Mandy Moore is not well cast in this role. Had her character been edgier, I think it would have worked better. I don't think Mandy Moore's performance was bad; I think the was her character was written was wrong for the film. Wait for cable on this one folks.
AD
