MovieChat Forums > Peace, Love & Misunderstanding (2012) Discussion > Why would Bruce Beresford even bother wi...

Why would Bruce Beresford even bother with a film like this?


Even the plot and the dialogue in the screenplay were poorly written. I only saw it because I was on a long plane trip and I lost my book but I could have better spent my time looking out the window.

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good sir, would you like some cheese with that whine?

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Uh...okay...anyway, the fact is that it was a shocking film and you can't get away from that.

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I found nothing "shocking" about it. Not comprehending what you're going on about. Sure, there were a couple of brief nude shots of male rear ends, but both were extremely brief - one taking a jump/dive into a lake, the other of an older guy posing for a painting being done.

While it certainly wasn't up to Beresford's earlier classic films, it was fun in its own way - I believe he was trying to capture the so-called feel-good "hippie" spirit and permeate the film with it. Some of it came off rather silly, but certainly nothing to get upset about.





You've done some bad things, sweetie.

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By 'shocking' I meant incomprehensibly bad (incomprehensible as to how Holywood would even fund a film like this). If you think it's 'fun in its own way' then that's fine by me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and and my opinion is that this film is tediously formulaic to the point where the actors' natural talents were undermined by such uninspiring material. I think my opinion is supported by its 29% rating by Rotten Tomatoes.

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BCDF Pictures is hardly a big Hollywood name, more of an independent. I don't think you can really call this a Hollywood film.

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I agree, it was fun in its own way. Some Baby Boomers might appreciate and even laugh at some scenes and information presented. It was such a good film, one you may want to share with your older teens and even Grandchildren!

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There was nothing I personally found amusing. I found the jokes eye-rolling. At the same time that scene at the end where the son brings resolution when his film gets screened is a complete failure that is no way convincing and the whole scene feels completely contrived (I mean, if a mother and adult daughter don't speak to each other for decades only to face further clashes in personality when they attempt to reconcile, can they then really just watch a film and everything's going to be okay?). I would only make my children sit through this film as some sort of punishment.

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Shockingly hippies propaganda. The same old stereotypes. Why did they even bother to call this a comedy. The only funny line has been the one about the sister having the Barbies processing the plastic soldiers when they were kids. I could predict most of it since the beginning.

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I agree with the OP. Appalling waste of the 30 minutes I spent on this garbage.

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I'm sure that every time this film was screened at the cinema, people walked out in the first thirty minutes.

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I hope this was one of the free selections on the plane. This would make a long plane trip even longer. Next time remember where you put the book, or check out those clouds.

Rarely have I cringed so much at dialogue, performances and direction. This film is fairly entertaining, but it's hackneyed, cliched and an embarrassment for all involved. I'll be generous and give this 5/10 based on the effort.

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I had to shut this movie off after about 20 minutes. This is so full of clichés and stereotypes that within a couple of minutes of them getting to the mother's house my finger was creeping toward the 'stop' button; finally, when Fonda put "crystals" on the kid to fix his headache (after the protest, pot-smoke, what's your sign, free love, "I don't name animals because they're nature's children" garbage, it was just too much to take.

Jane Fonda, and apparently the script writer, know about as much about "hippies" as Donald Trump would know about backpacking by himself. One might say Fonda was just doing her job as an actress, but her stereotype is so outrageously ridiculous that it's an insult. If she were a naïve 16-year-old, at least the movie would be credible, but an old woman playing someone with the mentality of a 16-year-old and dispensing "wisdom" about her so-called philosophy is just too much.

I know quite a few folks who aged and never really left the 'hippie' mindset, but most are at least functional people who can carry on an intelligent conversation...this wacko that Fonda plays is a complete airhead, utilizing every cliché known to present a wealthy woman's idea of what she thinks a hippie is.

Having been there...the Haight in the mid-'60's, North Beach etc., and having some lifelong friends with similar experience, this movie makes me gag. I haven't cared much for Jane Fonda's recent performances anyway...pushy rich activist 'liberal' who basically speaks the party line rather than thinking for herself as a real independent thinker would. But just the fact that she accepted this phony baloney role in this movie makes me think even less of her.

It's an insult, plain and simple, and I'll never know how the movie ended, it's just too ridiculous to even watch.

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