This film is *beep* And that's coming from a crewmember.
This is one of those awful indie pictures motivated only by money, to lure the Garden State/Cameron Crowe fans (I'm with the latter). Except this film doesn't have a single idea of its own. The characters are rampant cliches through predictable scenes of a lost young man (Lukas Haas) returning to the family he deserted after his best friend screwed his girl.
Except everything is so contrived the actors' motivations are all illogical. The filmmakers struggle to create some kind of forced dramatic tension, so hard that the audience laughed during many Serious scenes. Seeing this made me appreciate Elizabethtown. The Silver Jews soundtrack is all that gives the movie credence as a drama.
What pissed me off in the end is the film's message of following your responsibilities, and life's beaten-down paths, regardless of any bumps down the way. Molly Parker's trying to play the enlightened female role, or giggly pixie who has the answers to life and is never attainable (a la Kirsten Dunst in Elizabethtown) except she's not charming at all, actually quite a bitch in not understanding and being angry at her ex (Haas) for leaving her and his family - what's disturbing is the filmmakers rally behind her viewpoint and make it the message of the movie. Which is surely at odds with the cast's supposed liberalism within roles of freethinking artists, writers and a psychologist. But you do see Parker's ass (surprisingly they cut out the topless scene. DVD?).
The actors have little to do, other than standing around being immaculately dressed. Haas plays the brooding silent type, opposite Adam Scott's flamboyant prankster. The film's first hour consists solely of them calling each other out in their summer retreat cabin, Haas against Scott screwing his wife, and Scott for Haas leaving them abruptly.
Trying to sit through it is excruciating. Not to flame, I'm not going to say it's The Worst Film of All Time or something, but sitting through this movie is truly excruciating, as it aspires to such mediocrity.
And sorry, no mention or sound of the Velvet Underground in this pic.
So basically, not only is it a bore, but phony. Instead of being a life-affirming romantic comedy, it's conservative doctrine wound around second-hand plots and characterization.
I enjoyed the crew and shoot, the director and producers were nice, gracious people, not only because it's a rarity for lowly grips or PAs to be invited to premieres. But memories fade, and celluloid remains...