Load of rubbish!!

Absolutely Fantastic

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

People this days are like this: why are they keep stretching the movie... its so hard to watch... it gets boring so fast... oh i hate this movie SO if u are reading this review and dont like this review dont watch it but in my opinion this movie is a well-rated movie that will melt ur heart if u undrestand it

**Warning, this review contains spoilers** This beautifully acted film takes on the emotion of "grief" and goes wild with it. Every character is at a different stage of grief. Grief is a deeply personal emotion. It can come in stages or all at once. For Davis Mitchell (Gyllenhaal), who is just beginning his voyage through the grief process, the process is slow. He has just lost his wife Julia (Lind) and cannot understand why he is so numb. In this state, he questions everything about himself. Is he a monster? Does he know how to do anything? Is he just an empty soulless shell? His old life was lived quickly. He recounts his life using a series of letters to Karen Moreno (Watts), a customer service agent for the company that stocks the candy machines in the hospital. He confesses his sins to her, but really they are his fears. Because he didn't stop and smell the roses, he may have lost the ability to love anyone or anything. He simply followed a series of to-do lists and rarely took the time to enjoy anything. In contrast, Karen feels too much and uses drugs to make her numb. She misses how simple things were, how easy it was to love her son Chris (Lewis) when he was young. Now that he is grown, and facing his own challenges, she can't seem to connect with him or anyone. Her boyfriend Carl (Wilson) thinks she is happy with him, but in reality she's just a good actress. She understands how broken she is and hides it well. That's why she is so drawn to Davis and his grief. He is honest about who he is, he doesn't pretend that he's feeling something when he isn't.Chris starts out being the unruly teenager, too angry to connect with anyone but painfully observant and jaded. His interactions with Davis are comedic and inappropriate at times, but Chris admires Davis' honesty as well. While Davis destroys objects to understand why he is so numb, Chris destroys objects from a place of anger and pain. His pain stems from the fact that he cannot be the person he wants to be. As he questions his sexuality, he admires Davis for being himself. While Chris and Karen look up to Davis, Carl and Julia's parents, Phil (Cooper) and Margot (Draper), are troubled by him. Carl is afraid of losing Karen to Davis. While Phil and Margot are disillusioned by their son-in-law, who was a different person when Julia was alive. They believe that Julia brought out the best in people, including Davis. Now that she is gone, they feel they have lost the version of Davis that they liked. They are frustrated, bewildered and saddened by his choices, including the dismantling of objects that need to be fixed and his new friendship with Karen. Through all of Davis' interactions with these characters full of grief, he slowly lets go of his numbness. The defining moment being when meets and forgives the man who drove the car that crashed into him and Julia. He finally lets his emotions flood in and he cries. He begins to remember the good times with his wife and his happiest moments. That's when he finally realizes that he is indeed capable of love and that he loved Julia. In the film's end, Davis witnesses the demolition of a group of buildings while Chris observes him from afar. Davis is no longer deconstructing himself. He is now living with his grief and simply observing destruction from a distance. He has moved to a different stage of grief, not quite acceptance, but no longer in shock. Chris has also moved on to a different stage. We first met him in the anger stage, but he has finally moved on to acceptance. The film is well-acted and has a good premise but doesn't quite deliver on its message. The core structure is there but I wanted more follow-through. The relationship between Davis and Chris was artfully done, but director Jean-Marc Vallée did not explore the supporting characters very deeply. With the exception of Phil and Karen, the other characters were more props than anything else. They seemed to be a means to an end, which is a great injustice because they were also grieving. While Phil and Karen had more development than the others, they themselves were perfunctory because we didn't really witness them change. I think this was a missed opportunity because they are so important to the love story between Davis and Julia, which is also not fully explored. That said, the superb acting, the wonderful interaction between Davis and Chris, and the honest portrayal of the grief process, makes this film worthy of a view.

It is heavy, it is depressing in bits and clever the other times and it flows. There isn't a dull moment it doesn't pace up or pace doesn't. It only has dialogues where necessary. What you do see is a man dealing with the death of his wife and understanding his relationship and life. Not the way most of us do, but by destroying everything. I love jake Gyllenhaal more with every new film of his, no one could have played the better than him.

After 15 minutes I was at the edge of giving up on it... It's good that I didn't. Movie starts a bit slower and it takes some time for viewer to connect with main character and understand what is that all about... and then this movie blows you away. It is not for action fans that seek adrenaline fun, but drama fans will love it.8/10