For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - The Good Guy
The Impression:
Your
run-of-the-mill-two-guys-a-girl-and-a-lot-of-love-triangulation
film.
The Reality:
A film built on a shoddy plot-gimmick that just goes on and
on and on and on. A wisp of flick that just doesn't know
when to lay down and die. Scenes and scenes and scenes
could've been sliced from the picture, but what remained
wouldn't be enough to fill a Polaroid. It's offensive at
times (waterboarding and bulimia jokes? wow), and its
depiction of the difference between men and women seems
pulled out of the 1950s.
On
the acting side, Alexis Bleidel continues to be as blandly
attractive as she is blandly talented; Scott Porter plays
douchebag just a little too well; and Bryan Greenberg stands
just off to the side of invisible in nearly every scene.
I'll admit, the supporting cast (featuring quite strangely
Andrew McCarthy as a womanizing, ball-breaking boss) made me
chuckle on more than one occasion. The script, with some
reasonably snappy banter, and a twist that was only slightly
unbelievable, seems smarter than it's direction, and I
wouldn't be surprised if Julio Pietro found success behind
the typewriter instead of the camera.
The Lesson:
Hmmmmm ... don't take wooden nickels from strangers riding
gift horses.
Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light In The
Attic and a contributor at Sound On The Sound and
the KEXP blog. He also has his own
Criterion-based film site, Criterion Quest.
If you'd like to contact Noah in regards to his
writings here at Side One: Track One then please do
so
here.
- Noah Sanders
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-
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
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