MovieChat Forums > Men, Women & Children (2014) Discussion > Great Film!

Great Film!

posted 10 years ago by NoirLA
30 replies | jump to latest

I recently attended a screening for "Men, Women & Children" and I was impressed at how well put together the film is. The performances were all fantastic, and the music and atmosphere blended in nicely. The movie itself is very "true to life" and I'm sure many folks would relate to the situations that take place.

Also, Adam Sandler gave one of his greatest performances.

Jason Reitman was also in attendance at the screening, but I didn't wanna bother the guy since he was talking to others after the movie.

Closing it out, great acting, great story and nicely directed. I highly recommend this movie when it hits theaters.

[–] rdoherty 10 years ago

I was there last night as well, and I concur, on par with Up in the Air.

I did harass the director and flashed him a Thumbs Up.

I worry this film will be hard to market as it fails to fall into categories well (is it for teens? Is it a RomCom? Is it Indie?). I'ts none of those things, really, more like a straight well crafted dramatic intertwined drama.

[–] NoirLA 10 years ago

I hope the studio markets the film very well, because this film had a lot of great performances and I think deserves the Academy's attention come Oscar season.

Jason Reitman was spot on with the directing.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] illgainprosperity 10 years ago

What was Emma Thompson like - was her performance Oscar nomination worthy?

[–] kaba-kun-the-hippo 10 years ago

If everything went as planned, Emma Thompson is the Narrator, so she doesn't have a performance role in that sense.

[–] sarahenouri 10 years ago

Did he say anything about when it's going to be released? I did a little work on it, so I'm really excited to see it!

[–] NoirLA 10 years ago

No mention of the release date as of yet.

[–] mattblackwell827 10 years ago

Awesome to hear! I also worked on this throughout the entirety of principal photography as a stand-in (praying for a credit) Was the music ever kind of dark? Even a little ominous at times? That's just how I imagined it when on set for certain scenes. Kind of American Beauty'ish maybe? Or is it a little more teen-bubbly than that? A mix of both? I'm just so curious! Hopefully we're on the cusp of a trailer. Now I'm even more excited to see the finished film. As good as Up in the Air you say, whew wee. And yeah have only great things to say about the cast, crew and JR.

[–] SoulisDeep 10 years ago

Does Ansel Elgort have a nice role and how is he?

[–] kaba-kun-the-hippo 10 years ago

I haven't seen it, so I don't know how he is in it but the role (Tim Mooney) is, despite this being an ensemble film, pretty much the lead character.

[–] Xara_ch 10 years ago

what about Jennifer Garner? Does she have a good role?

[–] kaba-kun-the-hippo 10 years ago

I haven't seen the final cut, so I don't know how much she ends up in the film but she has a role that fits the intense, overbearing, slightly neurotic mom character she's played before, like in Juno. It's a good role for her.

[–] Xara_ch 10 years ago

thank you. She was really great in Juno.

[–] MarilynHack 10 years ago

what about Judy Greer and Rosemarie Dewitt? are they playing moms as well?

..

[–] kaba-kun-the-hippo 10 years ago

Yep. Rosemary DeWitt is Adam Sandler's wife and Judy Greer is another mom.

Both good parts.

It really is an ensemble film. All of the big people should have their own little arcs. Will be interesting to see how they fit all of the cross stories into the film!

[–] xxLuciaxx 10 years ago

NoirLA:

How was Jennifer Garner's performance? OK?

[–] NoirLA 10 years ago

I thought Jennifer Garner gave a great performance. She played a fierce mother who is concerned about the well being of her daughter.

[–] Insomniatic102 10 years ago

The previews strike me as one of those movies where just every single person is going through something similar, like Crash, and it just rings untrue. Like it takes the reality of things, and just amps it up to an extreme level, that individually are believable, but when it includes every character, comes off just contrived.

[–] krupocin-1 10 years ago

Well, if they stay true to the book, that won't be the case at all. Despite loving well written off-beat movies more than pretty much anything, I read probably about 90% non-fiction (and a lot) bc I find a lot of modern literature to fit into exactly what you just described (the 10% fiction is almost all pre-1950, too).

This book though I felt captured life in the 2010's better than just about any other piece of media, and I'm excited to see what Reitman can do with it. It's funny too bc the prose is so plane and almost simplistic but that really fits with the tone that Kultgen is trying to set, in my opinion. It's hard not to see pieces of yourself in a lot of the characters, the behavior rings extremely true regarding what it's like to have different types of relationships in the social media, sensory overload, advertisers-are-king era where everything is boring/generic (so many references to terrible reality shows and *beep* food throughout) and extreme (super hardcore fetishistic porn, very young sexuality, etc) simultaneously. Check it out, I think it's pretty cheap on Amazon used since it sold so many copies.