MovieChat Forums > The Leisure Class (2015) Discussion > Not as bad as I imagined, but not good.

Not as bad as I imagined, but not good.

posted 8 years ago by dcTalker
3 replies | jump to latest

It was shot well, and the actors were good. So from a technical standpoint, I think the unlikable Jason Mann has some talent as a director.

But the script and the characters were a mess. There were some funny bits, but it was so uneven. A lot of misses comedy wise. And then the drama/social commentary fell flat because the script was too wacky and weird and random to really sustain any real emotional punch or any satirical resonance.

Also, scriptwriting 101: you need to give the audience characters we can root for and care about. All these characters were really unlikable so I didn't care about any of them nor the storylines they were involved in.

Mann should have listened to those who were far more experienced than him: shore up the characters and the storyline and stop freaking out about things like film versus digital, the completely unimportant car crash stunt, and overexposure on one shot.

Not a complete failure, more like a sloppy, missed opportunity.

[–] cougar18 8 years ago

He needed some one to keep an eye on continuity as well. One example, the character of Fiona, for example. Her hair goes from straight to curly. There never seems to be an explanation for that.
Even when her hair goes back to being straight for the wedding.

[–] tinad23600 8 years ago

One example, the character of Fiona, for example. Her hair goes from straight to curly. There never seems to be an explanation for that.

I have not watched it again (since the premiere). However, I passed her hair being curly off (suddenly), as the pool being the reason (i.e. water sometimes turns straightened hair back to its original, curly, state).

Not certain if it showed it curly prior to that scene. The film simply was not worth sitting through, again, in my opinion.

I would suspect the difference on her wedding day, needing no explanation in everyone's minds (involved in the creation of the film). Most brides have hair and makeup done on the "big" day. I presume they felt that would clarify the situation in that specific instance.

[–] cougar18 8 years ago

Well, that's the weird thing. At engagement announcement, its straight. Up until halfway through the film, it's straight. But after the pool, it looks like the hair straigthener was no longer part of the budget, until the end with the wedding.
So yeah, it's weird.