Purely Joyful Movie!

Charming and brutal

Am I Missing Something?

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

All he (the screenwriter) has done was hiding some secret meanings to a number of entities for the viewers to solve. Sure, it's fun working on a puzzle as long as it's "interesting". People give away awards for it because I understand the world is full of crappy writers. In other words, the screenwriter for this movie got "lucky". Now let's focus on the big picture. As far as the artistic flavor is concerned, this movie is below average. Music is crappy. Lighting is crappy. No emphasis on anything. Horrible crap. Indescribable. Good enough for America's Funniest Video. And it's not even 90 minutes long. The writer failed to stretch the script.

This is probably my most personal review. Bear with me for a paragraph. In college I was head over heels in love with a guy who seemed to be feeling the same way, then just one day he stopped his attention, and left skid marks on his way out of town after graduation. No goodbye. A year later he returns with a red head from San Angelo he wants to marry. He took 18 days to figure out what to do with the redhead. He took 18 months to figure out what to do with me. Obviously I was always the backup plan, but it was good practice for being what I've been the rest of my life - the backup plan. So I've kept tabs on him over the years. He married the redhead, she cheated on him, they had a baby, they had another, then she cheated on him some more and then she divorced him after 25 years of marriage with half of his sizable savings in tow to pursue her own career. His now 32 year old son has three favorite movies (Yay Facebook!) - "I Heart Huckabees", "The Sting", and this movie. The last one, about a divorce, naturally interested me. Could I perhaps get some insight into the disintegration of my first love's marriage by seeing this film? Maybe, so I watched it.If this film is how this guy turned out - from the viewpoint of his only son - boy did I dodge a bullet! The movie starts out with a family tennis game. Immediately you see the tension between husband and wife. The way the match is divided up is initially how things are. The oldest son takes dad's side, because he looks up to him. The youngest son feels close to his mother. Kudos to Jeff Daniels. He plays with superb accuracy the part of the arrogant literature professor who peaked early with several publications but whose well of creativity has seemed to run dry. If you have ever met such people, and spending too much time in college as I have, you'll immediately recognize this guy. He manages to keep his self esteem by passive aggressive yet withering criticism of everybody else. The tension between husband and wife grows. The kids know things are not going well, and then one day a family conference. Mom and dad are separating but will have joint custody with a confusing schedule that makes the parents feel good about themselves but is convenient for nobody, especially the kids. The kids act out in a number of bizarre ways over the divorce - plagiarism and masturbation in public places being two of them. It effects the oldest boy's burgeoning relationship with a girl in school as he imitates dad's style and gets dad's results. Now the dad likes to call everybody a Philistine who isn't well educated or interested in what he considers good books and interesting movies. Imagine his surprise/humiliation when he finds out his ex-wife prefers the company of their family tennis instructor, Ivan (Bill Baldwin), who ironically "peaked early" career wise too. He was a pro tennis player who was injured and now he just teaches, but he seems very happy with his lot and comfortable with who he is. At first the oldest boy clearly sides with dad, like I said, even calling mom a whore for her affairs while still married to dad. He doesn't get that this has nothing to do with sexual wantonness on his mother's part, but probably she was just trying to find some comfort since she can't get that from her iceberg of a husband. Daniels' character tries to rationalize his wife leaving him by saying it was because she was beginning to get some publishing success and he is in a dry spell. He doesn't get that this woman is so over him because of his self absorbed ways that have gone on for the greater part of two decades.Laura Linney is particularly good as the wife because she doesn't have a lot of dialogue. She is having to convey how she is feeling with looks and actions, and she definitely gets her viewpoint across.The film is set in Brooklyn in 1986, but it doesn't make a show of the culture of 1986 to where it is practically a character itself. This is NOT "The Wedding Singer". How does this turn out? I'll let you watch and find out, although I've already given away a great deal. I'll just say the ending is abrupt. As for the guy who jilted me back in 1979 - he wears a beard, Jeff Daniels wears a beard in the film. Linney has red hair. His wife who ran on him had red hair. There are two kids in this film. The guy who jilted me had two kids. Still feeling like I dodged a bullet. Highly recommended even if you are not taking a (perhaps) voyeuristic peak into the life of somebody you should have forgotten decades ago.

There is quite a personal feel to this movie that captures a couple that is divorcing and how that affects their children. I enjoy the interesting rhythm to the dialogue in Noah Baumbach movies and this one was no exception. The family is portrayed as overly honest and perhaps inappropriate conversations with their children. Overall it's an interesting slice of life type of movie. There's a bit of a story as everyone adjusts to the divorce but it's really not about payoff. The running time is under 90 minutes so it's short and sweet and doesn't outstay its welcome.

This emotional, yet surprisingly entertaining indie film is among the best of its kind. It has a very simple story, dealing with the affects a divorce has on the parents' children. It is told like a combination of a film by Wes Anderson, Todd Solondz, and a cinema verite documentarian (mainly because of the use of hand-held camera movement as well as the overall fly on the wall approach to cinema that this film uses).The result is kind of depressing...but it's a little too awkward and funny to ever become really tragic. It is a very healthy and well written mixture of both comedy and drama that will make you both laugh and think. The script is brilliant, filled with dark wit and stunning realism, but the characters and performers deserve equal praise. While the characters seem slightly unlikable and pretentious at times, they're never boring and always feel three dimensional and real-and much of this is due to not only the script but also the brilliant performances. Jeff Daniels is fantastic, as well as Laura Linney, and Jesse Eisenberg is also quite good despite having the overall least likable character in the film, and the young Owen Kline does surprisingly great.This dramedy is hilarious, sad, and unique-an absolute must for all true fans of film