As others have commented, this is essentially a boring movie that isn't particularly original or satisfying. All the acting and direction is OK as far as it goes, but the thing that is really wrong is the storyline. It doesn't know what the point is or what it's trying to accomplish.
I noticed the group that rated this movie the highest were 18 year old and younger women. Interestingly 45+ year old women rated it significantly lower. I interpret this to mean that younger women were more willing to buy into Jennifer Anniston's weird behavior and were sympathetic to it, while older women more often thought that the plot a was little too neat, pat, simplistic and unrealistic.
*Some Spoilers Below* The most entertaining part of the film is the grandmother (who was supposed to be the same person as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate). At least they gave her some funny lines and she's a fun character to watch. They manage to homogenize most other characters, even ones that ought to be more interesting, like Mina Suvari's as the younger sister who is having doubts about her marriage.
There are oil-tanker sized boatloads of missed opportunities for jokes and dramatic or comedic conflict. They don't capitalize well on many jokes relating to events from The Graduate, for one thing. The Graduate is mostly used as backdrop. Maybe they figured that many audience members were too stupid or too young to understand jokes relating on The Graduate, so it seems they only threw in a couple of relatively unfunny things relating to it.
The time period for this movie isn't shown well aside from having people carry large cell phones. You get the idea that it's supposed to take place between 1995 and 1997 or so, but it just looks like today's world. Yeah, it wasn't that long ago, but when you actually look at things like news footage and movies from that time, styles and other things have changed a noticeable amount.
I wasn't quite sure what the movie wanted me to think about Kevin Costner's character. He seems nice enough for most of the time if maybe a little messed up, but then turns narcissistic in one scene out of nowhere, "Tell me I'm great. Tell me I'm sexy" or something like that. There is no clear perspective to look at him with, and the script misses lots of opportunities to play with the idea that he might be Jennifer Anniston's father. The script writers seem to have self censored or been wary of playing with the idea of this taboo in any real way. I'm sure it's tricky, but if you're going to bring up the taboo, you need to create a little more doubt in order to get anyone's interest. It's resolved almost immediately when he tells her he is sterile almost on first meeting. Yeah, they try to cast *some* doubt, but it seems a halfhearted attempt and I couldn't take it seriously.
I have doubts that tacking a "happy ending" on was the right thing to do. I actually would've liked it better if Jennifer Anniston's nice-guy fiancée had told her to get lost and stuck with it, rather than acting spineless in the end. Other movies such as "My Best Friend's Wedding" have successfully pulled off the non-happy ending and this movie would have been better off without it. I understand wanting the happy ending, but sometimes it's nice for a character to take a stand and be something besides a pasteurized, processed wimp.
There are some moments of overwhelming cheese here. Everyone I saw it with rolled their eyes when the dad said "I drive slow because you're in the car." Please. Thank you Michelin man, "Mr. Precious Cargo." This was over the top, and dripping with enough fake sentiment to make even sentimental people think "I can't believe they had him say that line." Overall, this is a very forgettable movie. It's bland, inoffensive, unmemorable and uninteresting. It's a waste of time. Maybe see it if you're bored and really can't find anything else to do, but it's really not worth bothering with if you value two hours of your time.
I noticed the group that rated this movie the highest were 18 year old and younger women. Interestingly 45+ year old women rated it significantly lower. I interpret this to mean that younger women were more willing to buy into Jennifer Anniston's weird behavior and were sympathetic to it, while older women more often thought that the plot a was little too neat, pat, simplistic and unrealistic.
*Some Spoilers Below* The most entertaining part of the film is the grandmother (who was supposed to be the same person as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate). At least they gave her some funny lines and she's a fun character to watch. They manage to homogenize most other characters, even ones that ought to be more interesting, like Mina Suvari's as the younger sister who is having doubts about her marriage.
There are oil-tanker sized boatloads of missed opportunities for jokes and dramatic or comedic conflict. They don't capitalize well on many jokes relating to events from The Graduate, for one thing. The Graduate is mostly used as backdrop. Maybe they figured that many audience members were too stupid or too young to understand jokes relating on The Graduate, so it seems they only threw in a couple of relatively unfunny things relating to it.
The time period for this movie isn't shown well aside from having people carry large cell phones. You get the idea that it's supposed to take place between 1995 and 1997 or so, but it just looks like today's world. Yeah, it wasn't that long ago, but when you actually look at things like news footage and movies from that time, styles and other things have changed a noticeable amount.
I wasn't quite sure what the movie wanted me to think about Kevin Costner's character. He seems nice enough for most of the time if maybe a little messed up, but then turns narcissistic in one scene out of nowhere, "Tell me I'm great. Tell me I'm sexy" or something like that. There is no clear perspective to look at him with, and the script misses lots of opportunities to play with the idea that he might be Jennifer Anniston's father. The script writers seem to have self censored or been wary of playing with the idea of this taboo in any real way. I'm sure it's tricky, but if you're going to bring up the taboo, you need to create a little more doubt in order to get anyone's interest. It's resolved almost immediately when he tells her he is sterile almost on first meeting. Yeah, they try to cast *some* doubt, but it seems a halfhearted attempt and I couldn't take it seriously.
I have doubts that tacking a "happy ending" on was the right thing to do. I actually would've liked it better if Jennifer Anniston's nice-guy fiancée had told her to get lost and stuck with it, rather than acting spineless in the end. Other movies such as "My Best Friend's Wedding" have successfully pulled off the non-happy ending and this movie would have been better off without it. I understand wanting the happy ending, but sometimes it's nice for a character to take a stand and be something besides a pasteurized, processed wimp.
There are some moments of overwhelming cheese here. Everyone I saw it with rolled their eyes when the dad said "I drive slow because you're in the car." Please. Thank you Michelin man, "Mr. Precious Cargo." This was over the top, and dripping with enough fake sentiment to make even sentimental people think "I can't believe they had him say that line." Overall, this is a very forgettable movie. It's bland, inoffensive, unmemorable and uninteresting. It's a waste of time. Maybe see it if you're bored and really can't find anything else to do, but it's really not worth bothering with if you value two hours of your time.