I do not mind taking a chance on a Director I am not familiar with when I see established names such as the luminous Michelle Pfeiffer and wonderful Kathy Bates. Having never seen a single thing Ashton Kutcher has been in, I had no opinion one way or another.
After seeing this film it is clear, Mr Kutcher was a painful disappointment. It also seems quite plausible that the director of this film had a crush on him as I recall no less than a dozen close ups of his face and all long shots of Michelle P. You do not take the most beautiful face to grace the screen in the decades between Liz Taylor and Angelina Jolie and skip close-ups!
***Potential Spoilers***
In addition there is more to prove the director/screenwriter is new at his job. Clumsy attempts at "art house" moves such as, I kid you not, 3 separate eyeball close-ups, awkward hand-held cam, slow motions shots where they make no sense (going out for a cigarette requires slow motion?), scenes that were shot out of sequence (The verdicts of two separate trials come in backwards and at an implausible pace). It is obvious that either attempts were made to move the movie forward quickly or the writer ran out of scene ideas to develop these characters. I mean, what in the heck was the Niece character for, anyway?? Finally, there was no attempt to write about family dynamics before forcing these very different people together.
All in all... a big no and further proof Hollywood cannot write for women over 40.
The stars I give are for Pfeiffer, Bates and the boy who played Pfeiffers son.
After seeing this film it is clear, Mr Kutcher was a painful disappointment. It also seems quite plausible that the director of this film had a crush on him as I recall no less than a dozen close ups of his face and all long shots of Michelle P. You do not take the most beautiful face to grace the screen in the decades between Liz Taylor and Angelina Jolie and skip close-ups!
***Potential Spoilers***
In addition there is more to prove the director/screenwriter is new at his job. Clumsy attempts at "art house" moves such as, I kid you not, 3 separate eyeball close-ups, awkward hand-held cam, slow motions shots where they make no sense (going out for a cigarette requires slow motion?), scenes that were shot out of sequence (The verdicts of two separate trials come in backwards and at an implausible pace). It is obvious that either attempts were made to move the movie forward quickly or the writer ran out of scene ideas to develop these characters. I mean, what in the heck was the Niece character for, anyway?? Finally, there was no attempt to write about family dynamics before forcing these very different people together.
All in all... a big no and further proof Hollywood cannot write for women over 40.
The stars I give are for Pfeiffer, Bates and the boy who played Pfeiffers son.