A very fine and very long scene in the midst of all this that warrants a large portion of the points I have given between the lead and the Dean of the college he attends. Although it had a good amount of room to be even better, it was a stellar achievement. That and the tragic ending of the hero.
But much of was quite odd.
Very long intro of sorts to the college kid Marcus played by Logan Lerman. Several redundant scenes where we are repeatedly shown the same thing. Problems with the parents, which I found to be irrelevant to the story as a whole. The colorful elements of the room mates that went nowhere.
But this was the love story between Lerman and Sarah Gadon. Not only did the first date not take place until 40 minutes in, we have no real idea of her until the date, other than she is strikingly pretty. On top of that the character apparently asked for the date off-camera.
The first date was intriguing but vague at the same time. She's a bit odd, sure. But then very quickly to the blow job.
Now I know it took place in 1951 and there was an element of trying to make him overwhelmed by the actions. But he wasn't until several days after the fact. All in all, I didn't buy his apathy, even in that time frame.
And she was supposedly mentally unstable, which was never really evident to me. Her scene of being very attracted to him rang false and his continual apathy was false. He was established as inexperienced and would have easily fallen under her spell.
But then the whole relationship, although both charming people, was based around quite a lot of hand jobs. Yes, even though the character's mental history was presented, I did not get that from the portrayal, which is the fault of the director.
Thus, I was open to a volatile relationship based on passion but was given an odd fixation on hand jobs between two reasonable people.
Subsequently could have cut out the difficulties the mother was having with the kid's father. It had zero relevance to anything, was described completely in dialogue when it should have been shown and took away from the love story. I just kept thinking that the mother should give the father hand jobs.
The device to get our hero kicked out of college and sent to Korea was very false. This kid had established a relationship with the Dean, whose sermons he was required to attend on a weekly basis in order to graduate. But they insisted on having him hire another student to sit in for him (as I knew that would lead to the inevitable).
There was a sad poetry to the final outcome but too little, too late.
But much of was quite odd.
Very long intro of sorts to the college kid Marcus played by Logan Lerman. Several redundant scenes where we are repeatedly shown the same thing. Problems with the parents, which I found to be irrelevant to the story as a whole. The colorful elements of the room mates that went nowhere.
But this was the love story between Lerman and Sarah Gadon. Not only did the first date not take place until 40 minutes in, we have no real idea of her until the date, other than she is strikingly pretty. On top of that the character apparently asked for the date off-camera.
The first date was intriguing but vague at the same time. She's a bit odd, sure. But then very quickly to the blow job.
Now I know it took place in 1951 and there was an element of trying to make him overwhelmed by the actions. But he wasn't until several days after the fact. All in all, I didn't buy his apathy, even in that time frame.
And she was supposedly mentally unstable, which was never really evident to me. Her scene of being very attracted to him rang false and his continual apathy was false. He was established as inexperienced and would have easily fallen under her spell.
But then the whole relationship, although both charming people, was based around quite a lot of hand jobs. Yes, even though the character's mental history was presented, I did not get that from the portrayal, which is the fault of the director.
Thus, I was open to a volatile relationship based on passion but was given an odd fixation on hand jobs between two reasonable people.
Subsequently could have cut out the difficulties the mother was having with the kid's father. It had zero relevance to anything, was described completely in dialogue when it should have been shown and took away from the love story. I just kept thinking that the mother should give the father hand jobs.
The device to get our hero kicked out of college and sent to Korea was very false. This kid had established a relationship with the Dean, whose sermons he was required to attend on a weekly basis in order to graduate. But they insisted on having him hire another student to sit in for him (as I knew that would lead to the inevitable).
There was a sad poetry to the final outcome but too little, too late.