morrison-dylan-fan Whilst waiting for my dad to turn up,I talked to a family friend about movies about to leave Netflix UK. Going down the list,he pointed out an indie Comedy Drama that he had greatly enjoyed a few years ago,which led to me giving in for a viewing. The plot:While trying to be supportive of their daughter Abby suffering a terrible skin condition,Alex and Kate run a store specialising in used modern furniture. Feeling bad about making profit from those who don't know the value of their furniture,and also weeping due to her plans for an extension being ruined by cranky neighbour Andra.Feeling that Abby's skin condition might be improved by a visit to a spa,Alex goes to a spa run by Andra's granddaughter,and gives more than he ever expected.View on the film:Playing off each other, Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt give excellent performances as Kate and Alex,with Platt giving Alex a straight ahead,robust approach that neatly bounces off the crossed- wires of Kate. Feeling guilty over needing Andra to die for the extension,and uncomfortable over how much the furniture makes,Keener gives Kate a bitter Black Comedy edge,where every attempt Kate makes to feel better backfires. Joined by a scene stealing Ann Morgan Guilbert as Andra, Sarah Steele cuts deep into Abby's primal scream to pour out Alex's fraught weaknesses.Taking inspiration from the Mumblecore genre,the screenplay by writer/director Nicole Holofcener gives the free-flowing dialogue a darkly comedic flavour,with the arguments between Kate and Abby being fought over the imperfections standing at odds between the mother/daughter. Placing everyone in a state of arrested development, Holofcener brilliantly rolls out a fully developed family,where the private issues Kate,Abby and Alex are dealing with are threaded with the overlapping family problems,in a movie which donates to the viewer generously.

SnoopyStyle Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are a NYC couple with a teenage daughter Abby (Sarah Steele). They own an upscale used furniture store and bought out their adjacent neighbor Andra's apartment once she finally dies. Single nurse Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) dutifully takes care of her hateful grandma Andra. The other granddaughter Mary (Amanda Peet) is a smart-mouthed cynic. Kate wonders if she should volunteer and awkwardly tries to show her generosity.It's a fascinating group of characters but nothing is truly outrageously funny. There is some smirk worthy moments. I like that Kate is not ridiculous but also not normal. These are flawed characters struggling to find connections. Nicole Holofcener finds the lighter moments as well as some deeper personal issues. I wish the two main characters have more connections. The movie is concentrating on Rebecca Hall and Elizabeth Keener but they don't have enough direct interactions together.

rogerdarlington Many will class this independent work a woman's film - and it is true that the writer- director is a woman (New York-born Nicole Holofcener who is sometimes called the female Woody Allen), three of the four main roles are taken by (attractive) women (Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet and Rebecca Hall), and three of the four support roles are filled by women (two very elderly and one very young). But it would be a mistake to pigeon-hole this movie which is full of wryly humorous and insightful observations on the human condition.Set in Holofcener's New York, this is a character-driven movie with minimal plotting. It concerns the occupants of and visitors to a couple of next-door apartments: a middle- aged husband (Oliver Platt) and his do-gooder wife (Keener) who are planning to expand into the accommodation of an aged woman looked after in very different ways by her daughters (Peet and Hall). At the heart of the narrative is the eternal question: what does it mean to be good.

donwc1996 This is the kind of film that gives films a bad name. As I watched it I kept saying to myself can it get any worse and invariably it did. Everything was wrong. The premise was depressing, the casting was dreadful and the acting was worse. The script and the director are clearly at fault here and since both were done by the same person, that person is what is wrong with this film. How she ever got financing for this tripe is beyond me. The problem is that two of my very favorite actresses are in the film and which kept me watching for as long as I did - Catherine Keener and Amanda Peets - both of whom did the best they could with an atrocious script. The rest of the cast was okay at best but no one really stood out to keep me watching to the very end. I finally bailed out after 45 minutes.