Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

"When one is nothing, one invents. It fills a void." - Diane Setterfield Pat O'Connor directs "Inventing the Abbotts" (1997), a film based on a short story by novelist Sue Miller. A fine portrait of 1950s America, its class tensions and assumptions, the film features cute performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly and Liv Tyler.At its best, though, "Abbotts" captures the qualities of good literature. The film may be thin in places, and O'Connor's climax mostly awful, but it nevertheless evokes well the tempo, tenor and wisdom of America's better short-story writers (John Cheever, Raymond Carver etc). At times it even resembles something torn from the pages of Henry James, John Updike or Flannery O'Connor. Co-starring Will Patton.8/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Larger than Life", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Pump up the Volume", "Everything Must Go" and "Happiness".

Pat O'Connor's film, Inventing the Abbotts, from 1997, shows us teen life in the '50s, but not the teen life of Rebel Without a Cause or Blackboard Jungle. Instead, it's the story of a lower middle class family, the Holts, which consists of a single mom (Kathy Baker) and her two sons, Doug (Joaquin Phoenix) and Jacey (Billy Crudup) and the wealthiest family in their Illinois town, the Abbotts, consisting of Lloyd Abbott, his wife, and three beautiful daughters (Jennifer Connolly, Joanna Going, and Liv Tyler). Talk about well-cast; the two brothers could definitely be brothers and the three women could definitely be sisters.The Abbotts are connected to the Holts by an incident that occurred before Doug was born, which was shortly after his father was killed in an accident. Jacey is particularly obsessed with the family, especially Eleanor (Connelly), the "bad" Abbott daughter. And he really feels that the family owes him something. Doug, meanwhile, has an on and off relationship with Pam (Tyler).The two young men learn about life, loss, and letting go. Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as the sensitive and romantic Doug; while Jacey provides us with the sex, Doug gives us the romance. Billy Crudup is excellent as his troubled brother, reaching obsessively for what he thinks he has to have. As their mother, Kathy Baker gives a lovely performance, every note right, as she always does."Inventing the Abbotts" has a quiet beauty about it, along with the heartache, anger, and raw emotion that the teen years always bring. Highly recommended. Don't look for anything to explode or huge action scenes; you won't find them here.

Regurgitating the Abbotts may have been a better name for this film, because there is nothing inventive about it. What starts off well, degrades in quality to nothing more than a dull and overlong exercise in the stagy writing style of soap opera. It is a story with nowhere to go, and despite some touching moments, and a delightful young cast, The movie is aggravating. I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the dialogue because it's so corny. The makers of Inventing the Abbotts give their product no room to grow. It's ultimately devoid of direction believability and stability, And we end up spending time with five or six characters who seem like they could amount to so much more than the story makes of them. It is unfair to all the smart people in the audience. If the film won't commit, Why should we.

It is not that great movie .. I felt it is uneven sometimes. Anyway, I liked this movie because it says brotherhood could be tough bond sometimes.. other times it could be really something great, I believe great times between brothers is the common thing (or at least wish for it).I don't know if most of people who have seen it share me my admiration of how the movie realistically & truthfully shows this great relationship ..Billy Crudup & Joaquin Phoenix were good .. I felt like if they were good friends at least to have such a natural brother-chemistry thing.There were a few good lines here and there .. some moments were touching.Liv Taylor's performance was the best female performance in the movie .. not to forget Kathy Baker's performance which was very good .. Jennifer Connelly, Joanna Going & Barbara Williams weren't bad but they were so good either.