cheergal If you want to put a positive spin on this movie, you may say it has its originality. Those oversupplied subplots really got me going to see the end. Kudo to the director on that.I recently watch "Young Adam" and was quite taken in by the story. This one also has an unrelated title to the characters in the movie. However, I would say most audience would not be able to guess where it came from. It was shot in 2005, released in 2011 and not picked up by the main distributions even then. So you may see where the audience stood for. However, it's not the worst adolescent movie I ever saw so far. It had some witty dialogues at least.Starting the movie with excessively graphic car accident really confused me with horror than sorrow. The director seemed to have all the scenarios play out but failed to connect them cohesively. I also feel Anna Paquin was not the right girl to play the role. She has a full grown woman's figure. It's hard to disguise as a teenager. Ellen Page would be ideal. And Allison Janney should play Emily. Jeannie Berlin's performance was too theatrical and over the top in some degrees. The only success in this movie would be keeping you guessing what would happen next. This one reminded me of "Incendiary" which suffered the similar fate. I would say sometimes the directors lost their vision of the movie media should be. It's not like writing a novel. You only can use it to carry out the most vital messages.Throughout all the ordeals in life, everyone will end fine. That probably summed up what this movie is about.

tedg Okay, I've been through both edits of this now, after recommendations from several readers. I get what he is trying to do. I am writing as someone who prefers the Cannes edit of Brown bunny and who eagerly sat through 3 1/2 hours of The Falls.I think this is a failure, a failure is the sense that the filmmaker had ambitions that may have been unachievable. What he wanted, I think is to have two films merged. One that carried a narrative that mattered and conveyed transformation. And another that conveyed situation, and not just surroundings but an environment that collectively has agency of the same power. You have to see both edits to see this man's struggle; you can compress the first of these because we have all sorts of narrative enzymes in our digestive system. We can fill in things and often are better off with less.It is also the case that you can make an environmental movie with scant narrative. Greenaway does it all the time. Ruiz. Kar-Wai Wong. And if you are willing to have a smaller, more engaged audience, this is achievable in 150 minutes. What Lonergan wanted to do was to have both and have each drive the other. Moreover, he placed himself and his wife as the contacts, a dual fulcrum between the two.There are so many dynamics that are necessary to bind this, to make all the parts affect each other the way he designed that taking any one out ruins the structure. If you did not know his ambition, a viewer would hardly see anything wrong. The Paquin character is great, as are the surrounding actors. The city, the tone, the environment is as richly presented as the best Woody Allen Manhattan-anchored movie. But the environment does not have the coherent agency it needs to do what he clearly intended.I think we have to have a much longer version than 3 hours to accomplish what he attempted. But gosh, the ambition is admirable and all the pieces I can see are amazingly promising. It is no wonder that first rate talent was eager to participate.

phd_travel This is an interesting movie. The main character Lisa is played by a slightly too old for high school looking Anna Paquin. She is a teenage girl who while distracting a bus driver, witnesses the bus run over a pedestrian. At first she covers for the driver but later changes her mind. She faces a moral dilemma about the accident including guilt and responsibility. But that isn't all there is. Surprising insights into human nature are shown in the supporting characters. Lisa's actress mother and her romance is very real and the relatives of the pedestrian are especially interesting. Despite an A list cast this wasn't a big success because of some production issues that delayed release for years while arguing about the length of the movie. Maybe some scenes could have been cut like the hostile classroom debates.Good supporting cast in minor roles from Mark Ruffalo as the bus driver to Matt Damon and Matthew Broderick as teachers. Alison Janney is memorable as the pedestrian.Good on location filming in the Upper West Side and Lincoln Center and other parts of NYC. Shows some parts of the city that other NYC movies don't usually show.The dialog is realistic and well written even if there are a few over confrontational scenes.Liked the scenes in the Metropolitan Opera which were used to bring out reactions in the characters.Worth the effort.

happymedium I caught this on HBO. I thought it would be a great study in handling grief. Whoa, was I mistaken!* Spoilers*1st. To the Reviewer who said he'd "rather be run over by a bus"—No you don't. I have been & _Nothing_ warrants that reprehensible idiomatic phrase.2nd. Re: The Film. While the Lisa Cohen character is usually hysterical for most of the movie (can't imagine how Ms. Paquin kept that up), the gist of the movie is: —In seeing a bus driver's cowboy hat (which she's in the market to buy), she catches the driver's attention while he's going through a Red Light. Because of this, a woman named Margaret is killed & dies in Lisa Cohen's arms. Lisa then gives a false police report so as to not incriminate either herself, or the bus driver. Lisa spends the rest of the film trying to settle her guilty conscience with all the involved characters; as well as mature in her broken world (child of divorce & mother is a self-absorbed actress-so Lisa thinks-but her mother is also finding love again with Jean Reno.What does Lisa really accomplish? Alienating or Antagonising the audience.(In all my years of reading/using IMDb, I have never seen so many User Reviews. Amazing!)Lisa's guilt (& class w/Broderick) re: Shakespeare—the screenwriter falls for the Lady MacBeth—can't wash the blood off my hands cliché (in a nightmare).Lisa thinks she can call or just show up w/out notice into the lives of Margaret's relatives, the Police (Hey Kids, Lisa thinks she can pull rank by being a bigot & insulting the officer who thinks it's fine to release next-of-kin telephone #s to her. Lets try that at home—Not!); & she tracks down the bus driver—again "reasoning while hysterical" & tries to get him to admit he ran a Red Light directly Into Margaret to the police.—Yes, Lisa's the definition of naive until she becomes belligerent—then she becomes Litigious. At least one moment of reality arises when Ruffalo says who's going to pay for my family's needs if I'm found guilty? But no way in real life would Cohen be allowed to visit him, or would a bus driver agree to talk with her.To Summarize: 1. This film is a giant waste of time. 2. There is no form of actual healing; although she's surrounded by people who could provide counseling. 3. Completely unrealistic police procedural. 4. It's actually emotionally frustrating to watch. 5. Just b/c her parents are divorced doesn't mean they don't love her, or don't have time for her. 6. This film needs either a major re-write; a vast edit; or I wouldn't have released it anyway.& finally …7. I think the discrepancy b/n very low ratings & high ratings is based on thestar quality packed into this film vs. the final edit that I saw where there was no way to suspend disbelief. Frankly, it felt like a very bad Law & Order knock-off.