Excellent adaptation.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

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

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Not to be confused with Venice in the title as the Europe's own Venice. It's a place in Los Agenles, USA. I don't know it is to be called a B movie or an indie, but definitely a decent drama with a decent storyline and cast. Indeed, it was about Alex, a middle age working and married woman with a young son. Her husband who takes care of the household, is now deserted them. So in her busy working life, Alex comes to realise the family bonding, particularly with her son. Then there's her dad and sister who are a troublemaker than any useful. So her life with a new perspective begins, like a self-discovery.This is a directional debut for a supporting actor. He should be directing more films. I really liked it. It was simple and obviously realistic. This thing happens in the real world. So all I felt it was a reflection of someone's real life on the screen. Well written and directed. I liked the cast too. Mary Elizabeth was very good and so the rest of them. This is not an unexpected film, but with its limits it had narrated a fine story. The ratings are not fair. It's surely worth a watch and better than an average. I think only the adult would recognise it from its contents with similar experiences of their own lives.7/10

I didn't see all of this movie. The listings said it started at 1:30 (and it wasn't this movie that was listed) and that's when the recording started. But there was already a movie going on. I could wait until I see it all, if it airs in the near future, but I might forget the details. So I'll give my evaluation now.I did see enough to know these details. The film takes place in a beach community, and I saw signs that the town was called Venice. One of these signs is an actual sign saying Venice. Another is canals running beside houses. Alex is the boring, responsible and cute sister, and Lily is the adventurous rebel who looks like she works at a truck stop. Both are likable in their own way.Their father Roger is showing early signs of what could be Alzheimer's, but he is also appearing in a community theater production of a play which he may have written. I say may have written because there were a couple of details I missed and these may have been at the beginning of the movie, but from the way he was talking, I think he wrote it. Alex works for an organization that protects the environment. She has interviewed people who have shown her evidence that a marsh is being affected by work already done by Frank's company to develop the area into a resort. Frank argues that the people would rather have jobs and improve their status, but Alex is fighting his efforts, hoping the resort can be built in a different location.  . Alex's husband George wasn't happy and he has left. They have a young son Dakota, and George is making every effort to be a good father. Alex isn't quite happy with her life and Lily gives her advice, which is not really the type of advice the fine upstanding citizens should be following. But this is a movie so reckless behavior is acceptable.  So will Alex find happiness? Will the marsh be saved? Can Roger get through his play, and how sick is he?This isn't funny enough to be a comedy but there are some laughs.I know Mary Elizabeth Winstead from her role in the quirky comedy "BrainDead" and there are similarities between her character here and the one in that show. I liked her there and, although I didn't see her name until the closing credits and didn't know why she looked familiar, I liked her here. She has several scenes where she is just looking at something, and somehow that's enough. One scene where she is high on drugs is effectively done. The scene really communicates how weird things are, between her wild performance and the lack of audio other than music which appears to be for our benefit, not music they are hearing. And while Winstead does quite well as proper and responsible, she does have to recover from that one crazy night and achieves that.  She also has to cry too, which is surprising, but it works.Katie Nehra has her own style and a lot of enthusiasm. I like her too, as she shows Dakota a good time when he's supposed to be in school. I don't know what she does for a living, though that may have been part of what I missed, but I'm guessing it's nothing substantial, or perhaps she goes from job to job. In any case, she's never shown working in the part I saw. And I know how to describe her appearance. I got confused once when I realized there was an environmental problem and wondered if I might be seeing "Erin Brockovich". But she didn't look enough like Julia Roberts, and she never was the one fighting for justice.I liked Skylar Gaertner as Dakota as well.Derek Luke is quite charming as the developer when not being challenged, but he believes he is right and won't back down. I did recognize Don Johnson, but only in the sense that I thought Roger looked like Don Johnson, but not enough like Don Johnson to be Don Johnson. I haven't had a lot of experience with this actor, but I saw him in several movies and in a WB TV series about a flawed lawyer. His best scene is in the play, but he does well elsewhere too., particularly where Roger seems to be losing his mind. And regarding the play, it was just rehearsal, but at first I wasn't sure whether they were performing or the actors were being themselves just talking. That seems like good acting to me. An interesting technique in the courtroom: Alex faces the judge and looks at her opponents. I don't think we ever see the judge.The presence of Dakota shouldn't give anyone the impression kids should be watching. There is sex talk which is a little naughty for TV, but let's face it. Most prime-time shows have gotten this bad. But just in case you see it uncensored, for me the sound went out a lot. It's certainly worth seeing.

I'll give the makers credit for a fairly original setting. It's a household with a house-husband, a retired actor father, a little boy, a black male buddy of the father, and a kooky, free-spirited sister in Venice Beach, California. The lead is an environmental lawyer.Well, movie people write about stuff they can relate to. These characters are Godless, artistic, environmentally concerned, and unconventional. The viewer in Central Nebraska may not relate to them, but some of the themes are supposed to transcend setting.Of course Venice never looked so good. The family lives on a quiet street and roams the area in peaceful bliss. In reality, that place is filled with homeless, druggies, gangs, and barflies. But the way it was presented was quite pleasing.I like Chris Messina. He comes across as a thoughtful guy in his indie appearances, and also in this one as director and costar. The lead lady is beautiful when she has make up on, so guys will appreciate that. She can act too. Check out Final Destination 3. Don Johnson is excellent, and Chris Messina brings a gravitas to the screen.The kid actor was perfect as well. He didn't have gratuitous cutesy scenes or dialog. You felt his sincere confusion over the drama in the household. The wild sister could have overplayed her role, but she didn't. She hit the mark.As others have said, there could have been some more profound dialog about the meaning of life, but I thought the lead's closing argument in the court room scene was well-written. I also like the way they worked a Checkhov play into the story. It was supposed to parallel Don Johnson's character's predicament of growing old and being left behind.Black folks will appreciate a wonderfully understated performance by Derek Luke.Yes, I would have preferred more background on everyone. Where is Don Johnson's wife? Does the painter husband make a living? How did the lead get so involved with the environment? Give us a tad more about the sister. There was some attempt to explain her, but not enough.How did Derek Luke's character make his initial money? There is also a small role played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She looks great for her age. Almost the same as she did 30 years ago, although slightly heavier.I'm glad they did not bombard us with an obnoxious soundtrack. Most of the background music is just a dramatic one-note hum to increase the feeling of intensity.All in all, not a bad picture if you simply accept the fact that it's about people who some of us may not relate to. The performances are sensitive, gentle, and understated. The atmosphere is appealing, and the attempt to make some sense out of the chaos of changing lives was adequate if not memorable.

The attempt to portray Alex (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as a woman in flux, forced by circumstance to "reinvent herself", was lost on this viewer. Instead, little was done to drag her out of the mire of self absorption. She takes everyone around her for granted, and is clueless about what is going on with the people with whom she shares a household, most importantly her son Dakota (Skylar Gaertner) . It was very difficult if not impossible to find any empathy for Alex especially when her husband George (Chris Messina) manages, at a distance, to know more about what's going on with their child than she does. Alex's sister Anya (Julianna Guill) is invited by patriarch Roger (Don Johnson) during George's absence for reasons never revealed, and thankfully so, as Dakota would be a footnote barely visible to the story line, (let alone his mother), without Anya's playful interactions and wise counsel. Rather than building a powerful thesis on family dynamics the film focuses on superficial distractions like getting laid or barhopping as solutions to the very real angst that accompanies dramatic life change. We don't ever know why Alex's work is so important to her, or why she cannot relate in the most basic way to her son, or how she feels about her husband, or why she thinks it's okay to expect that everyone else is responsible for managing the day-to-day tasks of raising a child and managing a career. Supporting cast do a wonderful job of carrying an otherwise lackluster character study to a predictable end. Unfortunately for Winstead, she is faced with trying to unearth profundity from the shallow grave where Alex's character is buried.