dale-51649
An early prison scene in the film is shocking. Not because of egregious violence or a shower rape scene, but rather because of the" wig-do" Travolta is sporting. The hair, coupled with some weird make up or plastic surgery that have inflicted the actors cheeks, result in making the audience wonder if the film is going to be a comedy.Basically , Travolta is in jail and wants out to spend time with his dying son. He makes a deal with an evil mob guy, and gets his get out of jail card (with strings attached)The film has the requisite early scene where a bad guy disrespects a woman or a child, and he is promptly punished. A mobster shows up at a diner where Travolta has taken junior, interfering with Dad/Son time, and Travolta promptly beats him to a pulp. A device worthy of the Lifetime channel. The only thing missing was an amazon female cop showing up a kicking the bad guys in the testicles.Travolta agrees to emulate the "make a wish foundation" by granting his son multiple wishes, including helping him(Travolta) do a Forgery. A couple of cops are tailing Travolta to try to get to the mob guys, and they are inserted into the story very unconvincingly. The whole thing unfolds in a very unlikely fashion, and about halfway through it looses so much credibility that it becomes impossible to care about any of the characters. I could see this catching on as a cult film comedy, except it is way too boring. Even the Oxygen network crowd would be lost because of the unredeemed drug addict mother. They all go off to Tahiti at the end to live happily ever after, except the kid who, has terminal cancer. It's like a preachy Hollywood message movie without a message or a happy ending. Misses the mark on all counts.
Larry Silverstein
I found this film to offer mostly stilted dialogue and terribly contrived plot elements as I felt it played like a made for TV movie.Josh Hutcherson stars as a 15 year old drifter and hustler but who has amazing artistic talent. Set in the affluent community of Carmel, California, he breaks into a house owned by an art dealer Everly Campbell, portrayed by the wonderful veteran actor Victor Molina. Wow! What a coincidence! Molina is really a dealer of forged art for high prices whose main forger has just died and he needs someone to finish forging a famous Winslow Homer painting which he can sell for millions. So with Hutcherson's talent he's of course the right man for the job.Down the road lives Anne Marie Cole. played by the legendary actress Lauren Bacall, who is a famous artist in her own right but has some secrets of her own.One of the major problems with the believability of the movie is that Hutcherson exhibits clear nearly uncontrollable impulse and anger controls, perhaps even bordering on being a sociopath. However, everyone seems to welcome into their homes, show him where their valuables are kept and have him even live there. Bacall especially, being rich, aged, and alone sees no problem in wanting him to live with her although she barely knows him. In the real world, this leads to usually serious consequences. Even a girl who lives in the town (Hayden Panettiere) wants to perhaps have a relationship with him, even after his anger had led to two serious physical confrontations with her own brother.The whole thing is just not credible and as mentioned way too contrived for me.
quantumwav5
Anyone who's felt out of anyplace safe in their lives will relate to this movie.Many who have no clue about the subject matter (abandonment, talent with zero outlet or nurturing) will themselves be lost and clueless.When you're lost most will try and use you for whatever they see of value to them in you. Even those who see something worth helping along will not be perfect; to the lost, any flaw will be magnified. They will see a forgery, as so much of their own lives seems like a bad knockoff.This film gives you some sense of that, with broken dream being the cracks that's all you see ahead. Maybe between those a true light shines through that's worth believing in.We should all be so lucky.Molina, Bacall & Hutscherson are terrific.
Jason VanMason
This movie does for forgers what the movie Hackers did for hackers, which is attempt to make them look like the mainstream folks in the audience. Oh, sure, they had silly clothes and some goofy quirks but the bottom line was that they were like everyone else, only more so. And just as Hackers was nonsense, so is Forgers. Real hackers didn't sit around bragging about their computers' specs like a bunch of boy-racers talking about their engines.In fact the Forgers characters are even worse, depicted as talentless con-men or child prodigies who can pick up a brush and dash off a flawless imitation of an old master in a few hours in a gloomy basement.For a real insight to the persona of an art forger look up the career of Eric Hebborn, who really did paint stuff that was often mistaken for very valuable pictures. But he never became wealthy as a result of his work and he was not 15 years old at his peak.Since the story is rather thin, the producers have made it more relevant to the intended audience by adding a drippy love story and a maudlin tale of parental abandonment, made even sillier by casting a 20 year old man for the part of a young boy. He is supposedly a high school freshman and at one point a character states that he thought the boy was "maybe 12 years old". There is no way Mr. Hutcherson would be mistaken for a 12 year old child.One wonders why the writers didn't simply make the character a college dropout. The story would have been just as effective and the romantic dialog would have been more believable. The screenplay has all the traits of a work by a committee. Adults will probably find this movie tedious and rather predictable.Younger viewers may enjoy the romantic aspects of the story.
AD
