SnoopyStyle
Jude (Amber Heard) is a singer and songwriter struggling to make it out of the shadows of her famous father Paul Lombard (Christopher Walken). She's a mess. She returns home to his estate where he reminisces about the good old days and dreams of a comeback opening for The Flaming Lips. Her sister Corinne (Kelli Garner) lives there with her husband Tim (Hamish Linklater) and their son David. Jude has a history with Tim. There's her stepmother Lucille (Ann Magnuson) and manager friend Alan (Oliver Platt).Walken is nice and the movie works with him best. Heard is playing a more worn-down sad bitter character. It's harder to watch with her as the lead. Another actress would have more fun with the character. It needs some comedy to balance out the darker material. Also her singing isn't great. This does have some appeal but it doesn't make it as indie fare. Honestly, this would be more interesting with Walken as the lead.
Gordon-11
This film tells the story of a successful singer back in the day, who plots a comeback single and if it goes well, even possibly a new album. However, things do not go smoothly as he is faced with domestic troubles with his loved ones.With Christopher Walken in the film, I had high hopes that it would be at least a decent film. Unfortunately, I don't think the film really goes anywhere. It fails to engage or captivate, because not much happens in the film. They characters are poorly developed, and I just don't care about them. Emotional portrayals are lacking, which is unfortunate because there are many points which could provide emotional poignancy. In short, I found the film dull and boring.
Fritz Langlois
Too much driving around in cars, like it was the normal thing to do, just like in "The Family Fang", another recent Walken misfire. Why should we care for childish, rich and idle characters with a gigantic ego problem? Their only concerns are for themselves, and they are aimlessly fighting with each other, completely oblivious to the hard realities most of us have to face, in good capitalistic fashion. It also tries too hard to be smart for its own good, instead of any real depth of feeling or thinking. The cinematography has nothing to recommend it, and again the characters have no endearing trait whatsoever. Everybody looks empty, aimless and depressed. We're mostly left with a Walken one-man show, which is half-watchable but even this gets old. I bet he relished his line "I'm not a villain" though.
cineastFGD
What a terrible excuse of a movie. The story is boring, leads nowhere, and the plot is implausible. Christopher Walken is great as usual and does not disappoint, but the quality of the rest of the cast is so low that he alone can not carry the movie. As soon as he disappears from the screen, the movie gets mediocre to say the least. Probably the biggest miscast is Amber Heard. I really don't understand how she still gets roles, she is simply a terrible actress, nothing short from that. I don't know with how many elder male Hoolywood stars they want to pair her up in order to help her to get some recognition as an actress. It won't work, she doesn't know her craft, and hence, people won't want to see her movies. There is surely no shortage of beautiful and talented actresses in film business, so why not chose one of them.
AD
