MovieChat Forums > The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) Discussion > Why was this movie panned???

Why was this movie panned???

posted 14 years ago by Mystify2006
17 replies | jump to latest

Beautiful film....subtle, sophisticated, moving and captivating.

Why was this overlooked at the oscars??? Robin and blake are superb and every character in the film is convincing and natural. Robin should have been nominated for an oscar.

Can someone please explain to me why this was critisized and panned by critics and audiences alike??

I hope more films are made like this

thanks for reading :)

[–] gljbradley 13 years ago

I agree. This movie is beautiful and amazing. Seen nearly 20 times already and it's still magnificent. It's so underrated and shows how Hollywood have a lack of taste in films nowadays.

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[–] zuzuspetals927 11 years ago

I just saw this film last night on IFC. I had NEVER heard of it. I hadn't really thought of myself as a fan of Robin Wright but she surprised me in this performance. In fact, I was surprised by the entire film. I sat down at the beginning in a particularly snarky mood -- oh, Robin Wright, yeah, right -- and when it was over, I was happy for having seen it. I'm not sure why the movie was panned, but there are no car chases and nothing blows up and Batman or Harry or vampires do not show up so that might have something to do with it. It reminded me of why I enjoy films -- nuanced performances, understated writing, simple, lovely and beautiful.

[–] sporkyou 11 years ago

Honestly I don't think it was all that good. Robin Wright and Alan Arkin gave pretty solid performances, but there were some glaring problems with unevenness to the tone and a plot. Heck, even Winona did a nice job.

However, Blake Lively and Keanu are just bad actors. Any time Blake appeared on screen I kept waiting for the voice over to say xoxo Gossip Girl. Shes just not good at all. Had those two parts been given to better actors and the plot cleaned up a bit? I think this could've been a huge film.

[–] Drumcheeny 11 years ago

I liked a lot of the cast in this film and I usually like Robin Wright, but I thought she was below par in this. She was doing Brad Pitt's expression in Meet Joe Black for a lot of the film - blank, I'm very naive look into middle distance and it got on my nerves. She also affected a quite dopey voice to accompany the look and I don't think it was up to her usual standard.

You must be here to fix the cable

[–] lulupalooza 7 years ago

I liked a lot of the cast in this film and I usually like Robin Wright, but I thought she was below par in this. She was doing Brad Pitt's expression in Meet Joe Black for a lot of the film - blank, I'm very naive look into middle distance and it got on my nerves. She also affected a quite dopey voice to accompany the look and I don't think it was up to her usual standard

Agreed. There was also a Lifetime movie feel to it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but usually that does not portend "Oscar contender".

Also, Pippa's life story was not very interesting to me. I expected more, but it came across as "Ah, poor me with my upper-class white people problems." Her childhood wasn't that horrific for Pete's sake. There are so many stories of family disfunction, physical and sexual abuse, severe poverty, and major drug use and prostitution that Pippa's childhood seemed like nothing to really whine much about. Her childhood home was a clean, decent, middle class one. Dad was a pastor and they had food in their bellies. There was no indication of abuse by her father or brothers.

So Pippa's insecure mother popped pills to clean house and stay thin, and her elderly Sugar Daddy pushed his first, entitled, unstable wife over the line before he married a younger version which produced two entitled, ungrateful brats. That does not equal a cutting-edge storyline to me. That is, woefully, a more typical American story than most would like to admit.

Although, that's Lifetime, television for women too. 

"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)