Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I like the adult actors in the movie who give solid performance despite the "piece of crap" lines they were forced to say. Maybe they had bills to pay and this movie just came along. A lightweight at best, actress, Leighton Meester, plays the prodigal daughter who returns home and breaks up the marriage of her parents' best friends. And she manages to break up the friendship between the two couples who have been friends for more than 20 years. It means nothing to her. Whether the aforementioned marriage was "happy" is not the point; it was a marriage and this flighty vapid girl takes down the man/Hugh Laurie like a lion after a wounded gazelle. He's ripe for the picking and she has no sense of decency/morality at all. This movie made my skin crawl; there was nothing funny about it. The vixen feels there are no rules and that's her game in all of this. Take what you want and to hell with the consequences. In fact, she sees people who don't take her side as being prudish, old-fashioned, biased again her youth, etc. The movie is without value. Give it a pass.

I can't say I ever reviewed a movie as a zero it this one gets it. A disgrace in morals terrible acting and a story line that is not convincing. On a whim one night a father decides to build a relationship with the vapid friend ofhis daughter. What a terrible example of poor cinema and story. There was actually a line where the mom of the loose daughter asks are you OK sucking David's old balls? I don't want to stop I want to be happy the dad says. This is. bad writing acting art u name it. Total trash. Don't believe any rating above a 2. This is the worst of the worst. Hard to believe these actors agreed to b in this. Disgrace.

"The Oranges" centers on two families, each with mom and dad and former teenage daughter (now a twenty-something daughter), living across the street from each other in West Orange, New Jersey. It's kind of like a dysfunctional family dramedy except the families really do function normal enough and well enough prior to the beginning of the plot. And also it's a comedy. It poses some fairly serious questions but presents them all in a light-hearted, humorous fashion.Paige Walling (Catherine Keener) and David Walling (Hugh Laurie) still have their adult daughter Vanessa (Alia Shawkat) living at home, unable to let go of some hostilities from her teenage years. Carol Ostroff (Allison Janney) and Terry Ostroff (Oliver Platt) are trying to control their daughter Nina (Leighton Meester) but she's off on the other side of the country still acting like a teenager. But after a perceived personal tragedy, Nina comes home. And then comes home Paige and David's successful son Toby (Adam Brody) who's in love with Nina.Two individuals choose to commit, or almost commit, a morally repugnant act. The good thing is, everything is still funny. In the aftermath though, they decide that they're adults, and choose to question the line of morality. Not only is the audience not expecting that, and thus we're forced to start questioning, or stop judging, but the other characters definitely weren't prepared for it, and they start questioning the directions of their own lives. While of course keeping it funny.Another interesting choice the film made was to make Vanessa (Shawkat) the narrator. She is not directly involved in the action, she's only involved in the repercussions, but she's also the type of character that we normally don't think about how she would be affected, but now we're forced to. The character that we would normally associate with in the aftermath is Paige (Keener) but here she puts herself on the sidelines.The highlight of the film, of course, is the incredible cast. The reading of the credits goes something like this: Alia Shawkat – oh, yeah, the girl from Arrested Development, she has some decent comedy skills; Leighton Meester – a new Hollywood "it" girl, let's she what she's got; Hugh Laurie – he's always fun and straight from a string of well-deserved Emmy nominations; Allison Janney – awesome (!); Catherine Keener – awesome (!); Oliver Platt – really?! He's a comic genius, this is doubly awesome (!!); and Adam Brody – well, now we've just topped off a dream come true.The best news is that the cast completely delivers. Meester and Laurie are expected to carry the majority of the film, and both do it by playing characters that they've never really played before. Laurie pulls of sympathetic so well and Meester goes a little more subtle to be able to show us what her character is thinking and show us what her character wants people to see. Janney is her usual funny self, so is Brody, while Platt is again at top form delivering some hilariously subtle facial reactions and some comic gold physical comedy. The least famous actor of all of them, Sam Rosen, threatens to steal the whole show as Ethan, Nina's hilariously sympathetic fiancé turned ex-fiancé turned super-apologetic-ex-fiancé. He's relegated to a pretty small role, otherwise the movie would have been about Ethan. And it's not supposed to be.Now that the highlights are all uncovered, it's time for some warnings. The plot is exceedingly simple and we have to wait for each character to catch up to it before the next turn can proceed. For those that are completely invested in each character, this won't be a problem. For those that like fewer characters, this will be a problem. Also depending on where your moral center lies, you could have a conflict with the film's decidedly ambiguous morality. For all the lines the film attempted to cross they went for a much simpler, more dramatic ending, never crossing into the dark comedy territory. That might stop it from reaching more brilliant heights, but it also keeps "The Oranges" more consistently enjoyable.Who Might Like This: People who like dysfunctional family dramedies; anybody looking for a comedy that questions some of society's morals; fans of anybody in the main cast.

I remember seeing the trailer for this film a long time ago and thinking it looked sort of fun. I do love Hugh Laurie and my wife loves Leighton Meester so we were both excited to watch it. I love a good indie film and this is certainly "good." It doesn't go much beyond mediocre-ville but that's okay. In some aspects it tries to do much and then at the same time doesn't do enough. It's a "Graduate" type May-December romance, a story about best friends and family and a coming of age story all rolled into one. The film perhaps doesn't do quite enough to explore each facet of this concept but it still does it well. In a real-life situation like this, it would be incredibly awkward for everyone and guess what? The film perfectly captures that family and friendship tension and awkwardness. There are certain scenes where you're almost squeamish feeling how these characters must feel. That being said I wasn't the least bit awkward over the romance between Meester and Laurie. I actually thought they were pretty good together and while the film NEVER implies their romance is right, it does explore the feelings and the concept of what makes a person happy.The ensemble cast is very good. I will start with Hugh Laurie because I've liked him for a very long time since House. Laurie in this film plays a softer, likable, misunderstood guy trying desperately to hang on to his family while doing what makes him happy. They could portray Laurie as a jerk but you never feel that way about him. Mostly you feel sorry for him and wonder what he will do and what is right for him. He proves he can star in a film for sure. Leighton Meester gives an intelligent and provocative performance as Nina, the object of Laurie's affections. As I said before her chemistry with Laurie is actually very good and unlike most "other women" in films she isn't someone you hate. It actually feels like just a bad situation that they've dug themselves into. Catherine Keener is someone I usually find very dry and in this film she is appropriately dry right up until her melt down on the front lawn in her car (which is one of the best scenes in the film.) Kenner works for this role because of her ability to seem a little rigid. That is a backhanded compliment I suppose. Oliver Platt is great as he almost always is...I wish he did more. He is a fun, lovable, misunderstood guy who has lost his best friend and daughter and is trying to hold his life together and his family. I think they really under-explore his character and his relationship with Laurie but he still does a great job. Alia Shawkat is the daughter of Laurie and Keener and former best friend of Meester who is truly caught in the middle of this. She does an okay job but sort of falls in the shadow of better performers like Meester and Laurie and Platt. Her character could have been far more explored too but she serves her purpose. She is best when trading jabs with Meester physically or verbally. Adam Brody is featured as main cast but he is really hardly in the movie. He comes and goes as almost a cameo and I can't say much to his performance because outside of a few good lines he doesn't have much.Shakespearean family dynamics. That's what this movie is. Its like when you're spying on a couple arguing because you want the real life drama...well this is non-stop drama and its fun to watch because its so awkward. Its well performed, a decent script and good direction by Julian Farino who comes mostly from Television but good Television so that's something. Honestly, by the end of the film I almost hoped Laurie and Meester would stay together but you know throughout the movie that it literally just can't happen. Still their relationship shakes up their entire lives and turns everything on end. Somehow everyone learns something and finds their "coming-of-age." The film's real feat is not making you feel angry at any of the characters but actually root for them and want to see everyone get what makes them happy. The film is in some ways a Christmas film but the most bizarre one in many aspects. The ending is almost too cut and dry and yet perfect also. I can't even call the film a dark comedy but it certainly has its moments for laughing and moments for being serious. All in all, very entertaining and while it doesn't knock anything out of the ballpark, it is absolutely worth seeing. 7.5/10