redeyedtreefrog I liked the concept of this movie but it was too cluttered. My mother agrees with me on this point. There are so many themes running that it feels like having a three course meal from McDonald's drive-in. There are also too many main characters. This movie is about messages - naturalist to commercialized, being true to others and/or oneself. This movie feels like the writing was inspired by passion. The problem is that all that passion means nothing if it gets caught in a blender. In this case less is truly more. Finally, I must say in defines of this movie... life sometimes jumps in and out, up and down very quickly. The people in our lives are many and sometimes we are forced to make rapid decisions regareding them and us.

thegoodspeeds It is difficult to believe that this discerning cast would have involved themselves in this project if the initial reading proved to be as unsatisfying as the finished work.Another work, John D. McDonalds' book "Condominium", for example, dealt with similar subject matter but with an intelligence and style that allowed the protagonists to be understandable and even sympathetic characters in spite of their flaws. In "The Californians" the characters appeared unaware of the importance of the world around them while wandering aimlessly through their own, increasingly trivial, lives.To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirsand blaming it on you ... chances are you haven't grasped thesituation! "

jotix100 One has to wonder how did Henry James novel "The Bostonians" inspired Jonathan Parker into re-telling it using themes of ecology, greed and love in the Californian landscape of Marin County. The basic problem with the film is that it throws a lot of ideas around, but eventually none of them come to be realized.The idea that a young woman, Zoe, the daughter of progressive parents that are into the environment and that falls for the greedy developer, Gavin,is something that doesn't pan well. The same goes for Olive, the sister of Gavin who is opposed to all his big plans to create a gated community where multi-million dollar homes are going to built.The only interesting thing in the film is the cast that Mr. Parker attracted. Noah Wyle, Ileana Douglas, Kate Mora, Joanne Whalley, Keith Carradine, Cloris Leachman, and Valerie Perrine, are among the players of this satirical film that doesn't live to its premise.

Woodie Great cast and a potentially good story, but it just didn't happen. I found it to be boring and without a decent plot to make one interested in the movie. With only a few comedic moments and some good music/vocal moments.... it was not enough to make this a movie worth watching. I'm glad I caught it on cable (Showtime) and didn't waste my money in the San Francisco area to see it. I doubt it will see a premiere anywhere but in California. The movie starts out as a message about destroying/preserving the beautiful land that the money hungry developers want to consume, but then transcends into a romance between the two fractions of indifference. The movie offers nothing other than a waste of time.