I was trapped in a hotel room in Mexico when I watched this hot mess. From the beginning I was struck by the artless dialogue and generic direction. It didn't take me long to figure out that the poorly cast Timothy Hutton was returning to his hometown to attend a high school reunion. It was fairly obvious that he was too old for the part, laughably so, reminding me of Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie when he was auditioning for the role of a teen.
It was made even worse when he started creeping on Natalie Portman, who was young enough to be his accidental daughter, the one that happened when everyone thought the vasectomy and tubal litigation was successful but wasn't - but more about that later.
So Timothy Hutton returns to his father's house and has some awkward conversations with his father and brother and returns to what we guess was his well-preserved childhood bedroom decorated to scream "this is his high school bedroom because look at all the stereotypical high school boy crap on all the walls." This is still early in the movie so there's still hope at this point, but that won't last long.
Ever so slowly we're introduced to the supporting cast. We get the stereotypical lost boy who is still carrying out an affair with his high school girlfriend, we get the comic relief who drive a pickup with a snowplow attachment, and on and on and on. There are so many lacklustre supporting characters that they just blend into the scenery. It's made worse when they speak. Every time anyone opens their mouth it's to deliver some stilted dialogue that we're supposed to believe is deep or meaningful but instead it comes off like the actors are reading the instructions on how to microwave a pizza.
As the movie drags on, Timothy Hutton starts creeping on the 13 year old girl who lives next to his father. We never see her parents, whom I assume are out getting restraining orders. In fact, this is one of the things that bothered me the most about this movie. Hutton is really creeping out on her, to the point of asking his friends about the viability of having a relationship with a child while stressing it wouldn't be sexual until she reached legal age. Roger Ebert, whom I respect a great deal, waxed poetically about Hutton's "Lolita Complex," or what I would call creepy, middle aged guy justification for pedophilia. One of Hutton's friends, the only believable character to a point and a father of two children himself, sees Hutton's character beeline to Portman's character to woo her. He gathers his children and quickly exits the scene.
There is one scene where Rosie O'Donnel tells two of the characters about their unrealistic expectations of women, possible the only bright spot of the movie. The rest is a sloppy, predictable mess.
If you actually want to see a more believable movie about high school reunions, watch Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. If you want to see a film about characters struggling to come to terms with aging, watch The Royal Tenenbaums. If you want to hear dialogue like "Look, Timothy Hutton's character's New york girlfriend is a successful lawyer, great looking and an amazing cook!" and see a middle-age man kiss a girl more than half his age, then I guess Beautiful Girls might be right up your alley. Personally, I'm waiting for Natalie Portman to have her #Metoo moment because I'm sure it's going to be about this film.
2 stars. One for Natalie Portman, one for Rosie O'Donnel.
It was made even worse when he started creeping on Natalie Portman, who was young enough to be his accidental daughter, the one that happened when everyone thought the vasectomy and tubal litigation was successful but wasn't - but more about that later.
So Timothy Hutton returns to his father's house and has some awkward conversations with his father and brother and returns to what we guess was his well-preserved childhood bedroom decorated to scream "this is his high school bedroom because look at all the stereotypical high school boy crap on all the walls." This is still early in the movie so there's still hope at this point, but that won't last long.
Ever so slowly we're introduced to the supporting cast. We get the stereotypical lost boy who is still carrying out an affair with his high school girlfriend, we get the comic relief who drive a pickup with a snowplow attachment, and on and on and on. There are so many lacklustre supporting characters that they just blend into the scenery. It's made worse when they speak. Every time anyone opens their mouth it's to deliver some stilted dialogue that we're supposed to believe is deep or meaningful but instead it comes off like the actors are reading the instructions on how to microwave a pizza.
As the movie drags on, Timothy Hutton starts creeping on the 13 year old girl who lives next to his father. We never see her parents, whom I assume are out getting restraining orders. In fact, this is one of the things that bothered me the most about this movie. Hutton is really creeping out on her, to the point of asking his friends about the viability of having a relationship with a child while stressing it wouldn't be sexual until she reached legal age. Roger Ebert, whom I respect a great deal, waxed poetically about Hutton's "Lolita Complex," or what I would call creepy, middle aged guy justification for pedophilia. One of Hutton's friends, the only believable character to a point and a father of two children himself, sees Hutton's character beeline to Portman's character to woo her. He gathers his children and quickly exits the scene.
There is one scene where Rosie O'Donnel tells two of the characters about their unrealistic expectations of women, possible the only bright spot of the movie. The rest is a sloppy, predictable mess.
If you actually want to see a more believable movie about high school reunions, watch Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. If you want to see a film about characters struggling to come to terms with aging, watch The Royal Tenenbaums. If you want to hear dialogue like "Look, Timothy Hutton's character's New york girlfriend is a successful lawyer, great looking and an amazing cook!" and see a middle-age man kiss a girl more than half his age, then I guess Beautiful Girls might be right up your alley. Personally, I'm waiting for Natalie Portman to have her #Metoo moment because I'm sure it's going to be about this film.
2 stars. One for Natalie Portman, one for Rosie O'Donnel.