Greetings again from the darkness. If such a thing existed in Hollywood, I wouldn't be surprised if Woody Allen brought a Trademark Infringement suit against writer/director Josh Radnor. There is even a clear reference to Mr. Allen, who must be one of Radnor's idols. Of course, similar ideas and approaches happen frequently in movies, so really what we have is a snapshot in time of what it's like to be a young (late 20's to early 30's) New Yorker trying to figure out life.
Radnor is one of the stars of "How I Met Your Mother" and this is his filmmaking debut. He does show some promise despite some weakness in the script and too dang many close-ups - talking heads, as I call them. His goal was to take an intimate look at relationships and the road to maturity, which is often filled with potholes. This seems especially true for those artistic types who are convinced New York is the only land of opportunity in existence.
There are 4 stories going on: Sam (Josh Radnor) is a struggling writer who meets Mississippi (Kate Mara), a cabaret singer/waitress; Mary Catherine (Zoe Kazan) and Charlie (Pablo Schreiber) have their relationship tested by a proposed move to L.A.; Annie (Malin Akerman) suffers from a self-image problem and faces off against a true romantic in Sam #2 (Tony Hale); and an on-going interwoven story line involves Sam's character making an asinine decision when a young boy gets separated from his family on the subway.
The best of the stories is Annie's. Suffering from an auto-immune disease which leaves her hairless, she has a real self-image problem in thinking that she is not worthy of love. On the ironic other hand, she is put off by the advances of nice guy Sam #2 because he isn't the physical specimen she had dreamed of. Akerman and Hale make these characters believable and we actually pull for them to figure it out.
Kazan's Mary Catherine just had me hoping Charlie would slap her and take off to LA on his own. Kazan (granddaughter of the great director Elia Kazan) actually does a nice job capturing the suffering that so many females put themselves through. Kate Mara's Mississippi is the perky on the outside, defensive on the inside type who should probably never get mixed up with the self-centered mess that is Sam (Radnor). Still, Mara's talent is on full display (she first leaped off the screen in Brokeback Mountain as Heath Ledger's 19 yr old daughter).
One thing the script reminds us is that this generation still believes the world revolves around their every decision. They have been a bit slow on the uptake here, but it makes for easy pickings in script writing. There are some terrific individual scenes, but some of the larger plot lines are not treated fairly or completely. Maybe Radnor tackled a bit too much for his first outing. Still, a decent effort and I look forward to more from him.
Radnor is one of the stars of "How I Met Your Mother" and this is his filmmaking debut. He does show some promise despite some weakness in the script and too dang many close-ups - talking heads, as I call them. His goal was to take an intimate look at relationships and the road to maturity, which is often filled with potholes. This seems especially true for those artistic types who are convinced New York is the only land of opportunity in existence.
There are 4 stories going on: Sam (Josh Radnor) is a struggling writer who meets Mississippi (Kate Mara), a cabaret singer/waitress; Mary Catherine (Zoe Kazan) and Charlie (Pablo Schreiber) have their relationship tested by a proposed move to L.A.; Annie (Malin Akerman) suffers from a self-image problem and faces off against a true romantic in Sam #2 (Tony Hale); and an on-going interwoven story line involves Sam's character making an asinine decision when a young boy gets separated from his family on the subway.
The best of the stories is Annie's. Suffering from an auto-immune disease which leaves her hairless, she has a real self-image problem in thinking that she is not worthy of love. On the ironic other hand, she is put off by the advances of nice guy Sam #2 because he isn't the physical specimen she had dreamed of. Akerman and Hale make these characters believable and we actually pull for them to figure it out.
Kazan's Mary Catherine just had me hoping Charlie would slap her and take off to LA on his own. Kazan (granddaughter of the great director Elia Kazan) actually does a nice job capturing the suffering that so many females put themselves through. Kate Mara's Mississippi is the perky on the outside, defensive on the inside type who should probably never get mixed up with the self-centered mess that is Sam (Radnor). Still, Mara's talent is on full display (she first leaped off the screen in Brokeback Mountain as Heath Ledger's 19 yr old daughter).
One thing the script reminds us is that this generation still believes the world revolves around their every decision. They have been a bit slow on the uptake here, but it makes for easy pickings in script writing. There are some terrific individual scenes, but some of the larger plot lines are not treated fairly or completely. Maybe Radnor tackled a bit too much for his first outing. Still, a decent effort and I look forward to more from him.