the audience applauded

So much average

Excellent but underrated film

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The Conway Family goes beyond the definition of tragedy. This dark comedy is ridiculous at best because of the story-line-there are just too many unfortunate accidents occurring on the block where the family lives.We have an old lady running around after the bowling ball incident that you would swear resembles the late Ruth Gordon.With it all, there is still a remarkable performance by Geena Davis as the embittered frustrated mother. The car accident that killed her daughter and left her son in a vegetative state affected the two surviving sons and led to the dissolution of her marriage.The beginning with the neighbor burning to death on the grill and the surviving son's friend whose father is killed when the boy and the survivor toss a bowling ball and the father swerves in his car to avoid a direct hit.A direct hit was needed in the writing of this mess.

I just finished watching this on Netflix Instant Play & it was completely horrific. Pointless and depressing. It is not a dark comedy and it is not a comedy-drama. Geena Davis had about two moderately humorous lines - the rest of it was completely lacking in humor.Let me be clear, IMO, the acting was mostly acceptable & I found no fault with the direction. The problem was the writing...awful, awful, awful. You've gotta feel for the guy who wrote this - I'd hate to have a mind that could create something like this. I should have followed my instincts and turned this off after the first 15 minutes. But based on good reviews here, I figured it was bound to get better. It did not! Never again will I watch (or read) anything written by this guy!

Yes, there is some irony in the tragedies that the Conway family undergoes, and I can understand Geena Davis's dark character of Gloria Conway amusement at finding out that her one-time date Bob's wife was electrocuted while using the dishwasher. It's tragedy upon tragedy that makes this odd demise of a character we never meet a bit humorous in an off-beat sort of way. But this is a family that is really hard to watch at times, because they just don't seem all that real to me. Gloria isn't the most likable mom out there (even Kathleen Turner's Beverly in "Serial Mom" was surpringly likable, even knowing that she was a psychopathic killer), and the break-up of her marriage to husband Ray (Joel Tobeck) isn't explored enough to be believable. I actually understood the kids more than the parents, identified with their childish pranks (the scene at the drive-in theatre was quite amusing), and really felt bad for the poor son Gene who ends up in a nursing home after a car accident that killed his sister, Linda. As for son Billy (outstandingly portrayed by Harrison Gilbertson), I felt his pain as well, feeling that he knew that everybody wished it was him, not his twin Gene, who ended up basically a vegetable. Even the drunken brother Larry I could identify with, knowing how deep the pain of loss and not understanding why everything so bad keeps happening. This is a family that needed major therapy, and unfortunately, the poor kids (minus Gene and their late sister, Linda) had to deal with parents that were too selfish to see how their behaviors were destroying the entire family.This was a courageous role for Geena Davis to take on, much more challenging dramatically than even her role in "Thelma and Louise", and she is excellent. The problem is that from the beginning (when we see the Conway's neighbor killed in a fire caused by an exploding BBQ) there is such a negativity surrounding this family, and the mother is at the forefront of it. Their interaction with the Post family (their other next-door neighbors) is deeply explored, and when tragedy strikes that family (thanks to an intended harmless prank), the two are drawn together. I would have liked to have seen more development of the relationship between the two mothers as they struggled to deal with their grief, anger, and subsequent forgiveness. A powerful moment comes when Mrs. Post (Sarah Woods in a very good understated performance) whispers "thank you" to Gloria after the truth comes out about her husband's death.I found this hard to give a high rating to, but since I obviously found myself drawn in emotionally and was extremely touched by the ending (concerning the widow of the elderly man killed at the beginning), I ranked this higher than I originally intended. I can only suggest watching this movie with an open mind and open heart because it really is difficult to embrace this family unless you try and understand each character for their own individual pains, which are many.

Confusing movie that can't decide whether it wants to be a dark comedy or a serious and sad drama. This confusion seems to stem from the over-the-top bad luck of poor Billy Conway. I mean, how likely is it that a driver in a residential area has a fatal car wreck while swerving to avoid a bowling ball? Or somebody gets fatally burned (opening credits) while firing up the BBQ? Sure, accidents happen... but not like this.The acting is fairly good, with Gina Davis playing a dysfunctional mom who has a talent for creative word nastiness. Too bad the other members lacked her verbal flagrancy, if they talked at all. And some of the more interesting characters (the overly sorry girl at the wake... the addicted aunt) are left woefully unexplored.A few times I also thought it was going to turn towards a teen coming-of-age storyline, but those moments quickly passed in what must've been an attempt to show us that teenage Billy is going through normal stuff for his age? Overall a depressing movie that lacks any insight or specific message. It does show us a slice of dysfunctional family life, but we're never sure what the point is and why we're watching. Some good acting brings it up a notch or two, but can't save a poor script.