So I saw this over the weekend with family, and something about it just bothered the shit out of me.
At first it seems like it's going to be a mildly entertaining little story, but the moral structure of it and the way it ends is really disturbing.
You've got this character who's pretty much blameless, commits a few venal sins, but then has to seek absolution from his less-than-one-dimensional daughters and his repressed-to-all-hell New England wasp family before seeking any sort of personal happiness.
It just left a taste of near-reactionary conservatism wrapped up in a faux-indie secular veneer in my mouth.
Also the score gave it a serious 2 tabs of xanax vibe.
Has anyone even seen this? Did you get the same feel, or am I just stuck in high film analysis gear right now?
― en i see kay, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 21:57 (eighteen years ago)
Once again my good name is besmirched.
― dan m, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 21:59 (eighteen years ago)
There is absolutely nothing on this Earth that could make me go see this movie of my own volition.
(IOW, dan m OTM)
― HI DERE, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 21:59 (eighteen years ago)
Oh god I hope I didn't give the impression that I saw this on purpose.
― en i see kay, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 22:02 (eighteen years ago)
i saw this on an airplane last week.
except for the cheesy dad-gets-forgiveness scene, i didn't hate it.
it was nice disposable pap.
― remy bean, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 05:10 (seventeen years ago)
on the return flight i saw 'mister magorium's wonder emporium' which was like a sugar-solution eye-wash, and 'stardust' which was like a fantasy made from the outtakes of other, slightly less mediocre (but still not good) fantasies.
― remy bean, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 05:11 (seventeen years ago)
All three together, a perfect movie.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 05:15 (seventeen years ago)
Fuck, en, I feel your pain. I had to watch it with the fams, too.
It IS really painful and weird how fucking powerful his family is in even minor decisions of his, such as how he flips pancakes.
I couldn't tell if it was trying for romcom or 'family' movie, but the latter's tone was just fucking killed by all the boring, boring lust in it. ie when we get a verrrry long shot off Dan/Dane Cook's love interest's ass flexing while they do family aerobics (srsly wanted to shoot these people). There's this scene where Dane hooks him up with the high school slut, who had a "pig nose" and the whole family sings a big spontaneous song about "Pig-nose Lilly" or whatever! Then, after discovering she's had plastic surgery, Dan & Carrell each fuck her when they need to enact vengeance or prove manliness to the other!
But the oppressive family killed the romcom vibe. In "Punch Drunk Love," Adam Sandler's mother/sisters smothered him out of relationships, but he was free to work his way into loving this lady when away from them. In Dan IRL, the whole fucking thing takes place with two generations of his family in the same damn house, and a dead wife hanging over his shoulder! Not to mention the lady is dating his fucking brother! This makes it both painful and decidedly not 'romantic'. The result is you want everyone in his family to die, even though he's not very great himself.
Carrell does a surprisingly nice performance of "Let My Love Open the Door to Your Heart," though.
― Abbott, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 05:25 (seventeen years ago)
Oh, AND, Carrell's some columnist who wrote one unsuccessful novel. And it TURNS out the totally bland, generic lines Dane Cook used to pull the lady lust object are from Carrell's novel. She recites the line 1/4 of the way into the movie at the dinner table, and then 3/4 in she says, "Page 102, 'Your eyes were like lipid pools,' page 238, 'You taught me how to love!' YOU wrote those lines!" Which for me would be an indictment of what a useless being this man was, but it makes HER realize 'THIS is the man I fell for. The one with the eyebrows.'
― Abbott, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 05:28 (seventeen years ago)
I watched the first 30 minutes of this the other day and was blown away by how bad it was. It reminded me of The Room, but not in a good way.
― Your heartbeat soun like sasquatch feet (polyphonic), Saturday, 10 January 2009 21:10 (seventeen years ago)