GREAT acting, GREAT cinematography, GREAT music! The plot?...eh. P.S.: for those who haven't yet seen this movie and would like to, don't read my comments.
so i needed some background noise while i multi-tasked around the house today and this movie was starting on tmc (the movie channel). minutes into the movie i set aside the vacuum cleaner. the movie's cinematography lured me in and the soundtrack, i thought, was intriguing. in other words, i was hooked. two hours later--give or take a few-- i was on the phone with my long-lost sister, telling her i loved her.
having read all the wonderful reviews and comments about this film on this website i thought to defend what commentator jackjack2 wrote about this movie. like jackjack2, i also found a lot of cracks in the plot. for instance, i don't get the connection between Walter (Sean Patrick flanery) and June (jobeth Williams)? one minute he's helping her off the street from a low- sugar fall and the next she's acting like his psychologist! and i'm not sure but, was June's firefighting son the guy who saved Walter, and not his sister, from drowning? if this was the writer's intention then all i have to say is...WHAT!? and finally, i also don't think it was made clear as to how and why Walter was responsible for his mom's death? i know why he felt responsible for his sister's death. we know he's angry at his life-guard father for not being able to save his sister from drowning. but we never know how his mother died?
on the other hand...you gotta give credit where credit is due and that would have to be the picture's editors. without them this wonderfully scored and photographed movie would have been an absolute mess of a film. given what the editor's had to work with, they managed to make some sense of it all; enough to make most of its viewers believe they had watched an "awesome" movie.
one would also have to hand it to the powerful acting performances of the main characters in this movie, including the little girl, Quinn, played by Lydia Jordan. however, i am ashamed to admit that until today i didn't know anything about a Sean Patrick flanery. until today i also hadn't seen nor heard a male actor, in any forum, cry as convincingly as flanery did in this tear-tugger. for that alone, i would have given him a statue. i really got a sense of the agony, the frustration, and the pain his character felt. they oughta put flanery in more pictures, he's THAT good! but of course it doesn't hurt to have his looks. as a matter of fact, even though i'm not crazy about blonds, i found him very, very attractive. and even though i've never been interested in physical muscularity, flanery is very well-proportioned. he kind-of looks like that new blond 007 guy--the guy in that creepy movie called "enduring love". DANIEL CRAIG!! flanery though, is cuter and softer on the eyes than Craig.
the scene that took me by COMPLETE surprise and had me crying out of the blue was the one where Catarina (melina kanakaredes) shares a touching moment with her doorman; letting him on her fears of being left alone after losing the only surviving member of her family. in this scene both Catarina and the doorman are exchanging thoughts while sitting on the floor on opposite sides of her apartment's door. i think this was the director's sweetest touch. Scenes such as this begs for the viewer's suspension of their better judgments about the film's flaws and demands them to just go with the flow of it all.
in the end, i learned something about letting go of regrets, that clocks never seize to tick and tock for a tragedy and most importantly i learned to appreciate the ones i love-to-hate and hate-to-love for all they have to offer me.
oh and one last thing...i thought the ending WAS good. it's obvious that Walter makes amends with June and Quinn. Afterwards, as he's sitting outside his father's hospital, contemplating visiting him Walter tells himself he'll come back at a later time because he'd rather cross a bridge over Manhattan to see about his "alice." It's pretty simple and sweet.
so i needed some background noise while i multi-tasked around the house today and this movie was starting on tmc (the movie channel). minutes into the movie i set aside the vacuum cleaner. the movie's cinematography lured me in and the soundtrack, i thought, was intriguing. in other words, i was hooked. two hours later--give or take a few-- i was on the phone with my long-lost sister, telling her i loved her.
having read all the wonderful reviews and comments about this film on this website i thought to defend what commentator jackjack2 wrote about this movie. like jackjack2, i also found a lot of cracks in the plot. for instance, i don't get the connection between Walter (Sean Patrick flanery) and June (jobeth Williams)? one minute he's helping her off the street from a low- sugar fall and the next she's acting like his psychologist! and i'm not sure but, was June's firefighting son the guy who saved Walter, and not his sister, from drowning? if this was the writer's intention then all i have to say is...WHAT!? and finally, i also don't think it was made clear as to how and why Walter was responsible for his mom's death? i know why he felt responsible for his sister's death. we know he's angry at his life-guard father for not being able to save his sister from drowning. but we never know how his mother died?
on the other hand...you gotta give credit where credit is due and that would have to be the picture's editors. without them this wonderfully scored and photographed movie would have been an absolute mess of a film. given what the editor's had to work with, they managed to make some sense of it all; enough to make most of its viewers believe they had watched an "awesome" movie.
one would also have to hand it to the powerful acting performances of the main characters in this movie, including the little girl, Quinn, played by Lydia Jordan. however, i am ashamed to admit that until today i didn't know anything about a Sean Patrick flanery. until today i also hadn't seen nor heard a male actor, in any forum, cry as convincingly as flanery did in this tear-tugger. for that alone, i would have given him a statue. i really got a sense of the agony, the frustration, and the pain his character felt. they oughta put flanery in more pictures, he's THAT good! but of course it doesn't hurt to have his looks. as a matter of fact, even though i'm not crazy about blonds, i found him very, very attractive. and even though i've never been interested in physical muscularity, flanery is very well-proportioned. he kind-of looks like that new blond 007 guy--the guy in that creepy movie called "enduring love". DANIEL CRAIG!! flanery though, is cuter and softer on the eyes than Craig.
the scene that took me by COMPLETE surprise and had me crying out of the blue was the one where Catarina (melina kanakaredes) shares a touching moment with her doorman; letting him on her fears of being left alone after losing the only surviving member of her family. in this scene both Catarina and the doorman are exchanging thoughts while sitting on the floor on opposite sides of her apartment's door. i think this was the director's sweetest touch. Scenes such as this begs for the viewer's suspension of their better judgments about the film's flaws and demands them to just go with the flow of it all.
in the end, i learned something about letting go of regrets, that clocks never seize to tick and tock for a tragedy and most importantly i learned to appreciate the ones i love-to-hate and hate-to-love for all they have to offer me.
oh and one last thing...i thought the ending WAS good. it's obvious that Walter makes amends with June and Quinn. Afterwards, as he's sitting outside his father's hospital, contemplating visiting him Walter tells himself he'll come back at a later time because he'd rather cross a bridge over Manhattan to see about his "alice." It's pretty simple and sweet.