It's not what's wrong with people, it's what's wrong with the film. And that's pretty simple: it's already been done about a million times. And 800 thousand of those were better.
The editing sucks and nearly every actor in the movie can do a lot better (so my guess is the direction sucked, too - considering the director is also the writer, that doesn't surprise me). Yes, Nigel Hawthorne is great (probably because he had enough clout to refuse following the director's instructions). Yes, the cinematography and the art direction and the production design in general are excellent. But it's still a tired, predictable story, badly directed and terribly edited.
If anything, the feeling of a wasted opportunity (great cast and crew wasted on a bad script and a bad director) makes this a "feel-bad" movie.
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slaveofthepull
17 years ago
Well most stories have conflicts in them. That's generally what makes a story. The fact is there's only so many different basic conflicts you can have before they all start repeating each other. The only way to keep things fresh is by changing settings in the story, making interesting characters, etc. Ross' conflict of not knowing what to do with his life and him "finding himself" is something we've seen before, thats true. However, the characters and the setting are original and interesting. The movie was excellent. It was a little slow / weird at first but it all made sense in the end. I don't know what you mean by bad editing. Everything flowed really well. It's true that you can predict certain aspects of the story, but that doesn't make it any less charming to see it all unfold.
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hotaugustnight
16 years ago
I didn't want to comment on this film until I had seen it again. So, I just saw it and have to say that I enjoyed it from start to finish. The uncle knew each of his relatives so well and could understand other character's motives. How nice it would be to have your very own fairy godfather in your family that would work things in your best interest. Also, there were many messages about living an authentic life. This is an excellent and, sadly, misunderstood film that doesn't get much attention. Sad, really.
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GaelicLass
15 years ago
This film had too many questions that were left unanswered. Very little was said about the circumstances that brought them all there together. There was very little info about their background stories so we could feel more for them. Only the character Tom was expanded on; we knew why he had issues. I spent a great deal of time trying to figure them all out, in vain.
I wanted to like this film sooooo much, but never did. I found it too loose jointed, not enough cohesion, and the dialogue could have been much better. These are all GREAT actors and given the right script, this movie would have been an excellent piece of art, along the lines of a "Sideways".
What the heck were all those Brits and Laotians doing in Colorado anyway? I am assuming it was Colorado because a poster claimed he/she heard it in the movie; I never did.
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