gbkmmaurstad
The film opens with Wood Harelson (Wilson) walking his dog lamenting how disappointed in life and people he is. As this tale unfolds, you learn he and Laura Dern (Pippi) had once been a couple. Pippi left him when she found out she was pregnant saying she was going to get an abortion and go to LA. Fast forward 17 years, Wilson lives a marginal, "tin hat" life laced with forcing himself upon strangers in a desperate attempt for companionship. When his estranged father dies and his only friend announces he is moving out of state, he is struct with the thought there is no one left he can share common memories with. He then begins to wonder who's still left in his old neighborhood and wonders whatever happend to Pippi leading him on a path of disfunctional family twists and turns.Both Harelson and Dern manage to play believable characters, Wilson as a nuerotic and Pippi just trying to get through the day without flipping out. What is a bit distracting is all the F-bombs, but maybe it was to depict the lack of understanding and communication among them. Not for young viewers due to language and adult themes, but older teens might benefit from seeing a film that shows life rarely turns out like you think it will.
sergelamarche
The hero is too annoying for his age. As if he didn't learn before through punches in the face. The light comes when he get in jail. Not credible, unless he's a benign psychopath.
hond-92064
At first this movies lifts one's expectations. It could have been a great portrait of a straight talking slightly bewildered man (Harrelson is quite good).
Then that focus is lost. But replaced with another dynamic that quickly grabs the attention - the story wanders unexpectedly, but in a good way.
The middle part I watched mostly to see where the makers can take this story. And every turn was well within the logic of the story, well within the foundations laid down at the start for the characters and the spaces they move in.
Then it suddenly becomes silly and sentimental. And ends.
Did they run out of time and decide to quickly end this little money spinner? Did they grow bored?
Pity. It could have been a much better movie.
As it is there are much better ones to watch today.
ritera1
I am not familiar with the graphic novel that this comes from, but found it odd that a somewhat counter-culture guy was always wearing khakis and a tucked-in collared shirt.The big takeaway was I felt Woody Harrelson used this as some sort of self-indulgant vehicle and there was no direction he was listening to. Thus, a good chunk fell flat as he tried just a bit too hard and a bit too loud to be funny. Same with Laura Dern.There was also not a focus to much of it. In the end, the character throught he had "grown up" while in prison but I really didn't see him as such to begin with. There were suggestions what the character was, but nothing clearly defined. But I really didn't think he was childish. More like bitter and set in his ways, never recovering from past failures. There was a redundancy to his being so smug, but that really didn't bother me.The character was on a search but a vague search. Okay, his father died. Which led him to his former friend. Then to his former wife, then to his surprise 17 year-old daughter. The prison stuff was amusing as it forced a change on the character. There were consequences to running his mouth. I got that.Strangely I didn't really think about Laura Dern and the daughter 'til the visiting room scene when Dern showed up. Then a huge amount of backstory delivered verbally that it was 3 years later and that the daughter turned on him in the courtroom. I thought it was a few months, but 3 years? Huh? You could not spend 15 seconds of screen time with her behind the witness box in the courtroom doing such? Glaring sloppiness. Then it felt like it just treaded water 'til the end. You will not be lacking if you missed it.
AD
