I waited for months to be able to watch this movie with Timothy Dalton. I am on a phase with him and watching everything I can see of him. Looking at previews and clips of this movie, I knew it had to be good and was not disappointed, except ....
A free, fun-loving father (Timothy Dalton) takes his kids to their favorite beach house on Balboa Island for an annual vacation. Unfortunately, this is the only time he devotes to his children although you can see he loves them very much.
A woman with two children (Nastassja Kinski) is taking a vacation, combined with her genetic vegetable growing business and is fearfully afraid of anything happening to her children. Even prohibiting them from just having some good, clean fun.
Of course, they are total opposites and are forced to share a timeshare property since it was double booked. Although there seems to be a lot of animosity between the two families, the easy-going attitude and quick wit of Matt Farragher (Dalton) and pursuit of enjoying life starts to thaw out both families as well as his continual fun-harassment teasing of Dr. Julia Weiland (Kinski).
The kids bond quickly enough and seem realistic in their interaction with each other, albeit perhaps a little too fast. And the parents begin to find chemistry between each other growing little by little from sharing a harrowing experience worrying about their sons in a storm to finding out Matt Farragher is not as all he-man as he pretends to be and that Dr. Julia Weiland is more sympathetic than she first appeared.
Furthermore, it is nice to see the two start maturing more in their own rights and broadening their viewpoints.
The added addition of the fiance, Russell (Geoffrey Lower), and the trashy girlfriend Felice, (Carlton Elizabeth), are just minor additions to the plot to cause some conflict between the two love interests in the movie, especially with the planned wedding of Weiland and Russell.
However, the irresistible chemistry and attraction between the two parents are overwhelmingly stronger as the movie continues, culminating in a deliciously romantic cooking scene between Farragher and Weiland. In the scene, both express their different types of characters in how they react to the situation. But why, for heaven's sake, why does Farragher and Weiland show animosity toward each other after the romantic kitchen scene? There was no explanation.
Dalton is an amazingly phenomenal actor that delves into each part and becomes the character so much sometimes the viewer cannot see Dalton, the actor. This is not different and he and his co-star, Kinski, are very good in their respective roles. He also has the ability to be extraordinarily funny when he wants to (look at episodes of Chuck) and makes viewers laugh long after some of the lines he delivered. I wish he had played more humorous roles in his career. And as far as his bare chest not being that great (as one other commenter mentioned), I liked it better this way because he seemed more natural.
Nevertheless, the faults of this film are plentiful and have nothing to do with the acting but the direction, writing and film editing. Brief minutus second film pieces of clarification were left out that would have helped the film flow better and help the characters along in their development.
Example 1: Once it was established that Farragher didn't want to sleep alone during a thunderstorm nor let his children know, one or two seconds of film where Weiland took a moment to think would have helped the flow to the living with all kids and parents.
Example 2: The next morning, a few more scenes of the outdoor rain would have helped the process of the film to establish more why they were all staying indoors. Plus, if the film had shown Weiland actually noticing all the other visitors heading toward the clubhouse, it would have helped it as well.
Example 3: Why did they not show Weiland commenting to Farragher that they wouldn't be allowed at the clubhouse and he could have stated that they would bring something that would ensure their access - his food?
Example 4: It would have been best to show Farragher turn up the radio himself at the clubhouse to make the stuffy ones' reaction even more understandable.
There are many more I could mention. The film runs only 1 hr 26 min - it needed the extra half-hour.
Just a few little extra scenes like this would have helped the flow of the film better and made it first rate. And I agree with another commentator, I wish they had made a sequel to this to see how all of them were going to work in as a family. They were, after all, on the brink.
At any rate, it is still a wonderful little feel-good film that I would love to have a DVD in English. I can only find it in German! Rats!
A free, fun-loving father (Timothy Dalton) takes his kids to their favorite beach house on Balboa Island for an annual vacation. Unfortunately, this is the only time he devotes to his children although you can see he loves them very much.
A woman with two children (Nastassja Kinski) is taking a vacation, combined with her genetic vegetable growing business and is fearfully afraid of anything happening to her children. Even prohibiting them from just having some good, clean fun.
Of course, they are total opposites and are forced to share a timeshare property since it was double booked. Although there seems to be a lot of animosity between the two families, the easy-going attitude and quick wit of Matt Farragher (Dalton) and pursuit of enjoying life starts to thaw out both families as well as his continual fun-harassment teasing of Dr. Julia Weiland (Kinski).
The kids bond quickly enough and seem realistic in their interaction with each other, albeit perhaps a little too fast. And the parents begin to find chemistry between each other growing little by little from sharing a harrowing experience worrying about their sons in a storm to finding out Matt Farragher is not as all he-man as he pretends to be and that Dr. Julia Weiland is more sympathetic than she first appeared.
Furthermore, it is nice to see the two start maturing more in their own rights and broadening their viewpoints.
The added addition of the fiance, Russell (Geoffrey Lower), and the trashy girlfriend Felice, (Carlton Elizabeth), are just minor additions to the plot to cause some conflict between the two love interests in the movie, especially with the planned wedding of Weiland and Russell.
However, the irresistible chemistry and attraction between the two parents are overwhelmingly stronger as the movie continues, culminating in a deliciously romantic cooking scene between Farragher and Weiland. In the scene, both express their different types of characters in how they react to the situation. But why, for heaven's sake, why does Farragher and Weiland show animosity toward each other after the romantic kitchen scene? There was no explanation.
Dalton is an amazingly phenomenal actor that delves into each part and becomes the character so much sometimes the viewer cannot see Dalton, the actor. This is not different and he and his co-star, Kinski, are very good in their respective roles. He also has the ability to be extraordinarily funny when he wants to (look at episodes of Chuck) and makes viewers laugh long after some of the lines he delivered. I wish he had played more humorous roles in his career. And as far as his bare chest not being that great (as one other commenter mentioned), I liked it better this way because he seemed more natural.
Nevertheless, the faults of this film are plentiful and have nothing to do with the acting but the direction, writing and film editing. Brief minutus second film pieces of clarification were left out that would have helped the film flow better and help the characters along in their development.
Example 1: Once it was established that Farragher didn't want to sleep alone during a thunderstorm nor let his children know, one or two seconds of film where Weiland took a moment to think would have helped the flow to the living with all kids and parents.
Example 2: The next morning, a few more scenes of the outdoor rain would have helped the process of the film to establish more why they were all staying indoors. Plus, if the film had shown Weiland actually noticing all the other visitors heading toward the clubhouse, it would have helped it as well.
Example 3: Why did they not show Weiland commenting to Farragher that they wouldn't be allowed at the clubhouse and he could have stated that they would bring something that would ensure their access - his food?
Example 4: It would have been best to show Farragher turn up the radio himself at the clubhouse to make the stuffy ones' reaction even more understandable.
There are many more I could mention. The film runs only 1 hr 26 min - it needed the extra half-hour.
Just a few little extra scenes like this would have helped the flow of the film better and made it first rate. And I agree with another commentator, I wish they had made a sequel to this to see how all of them were going to work in as a family. They were, after all, on the brink.
At any rate, it is still a wonderful little feel-good film that I would love to have a DVD in English. I can only find it in German! Rats!