Viewed in
2011
Formats
DVD
Premise
John C. Reilly stars as a man who falls in love with a woman (Marisa Tomei) whose adult son (Jonah Hill) still lives with her.
Liked
The charming leads.
Disliked
The mind games.
Thoughts
A pretty good film thanks to a likable cast and interesting writing.
Reilly and Tomei were irresistibly huggable here. Despite their characters deep flaws and loser mentality, they created some absolutely sweet and tender moments together that became the heart of the film.
Jonah Hill's performance was way darker, and better, than I had expected. Good to see him expanding his acting repertoire. The other cougar indie darling, Catherine Keener, put in some good scenes as Reilly's ex-wife.
This film delved a lot into uncommon relationships, most of it was interesting or entertaining. In addition to the love story, there were quirky scenes of Reilly still hanging out with his remarried ex-wife, and the creepy, Oedipus-like, mother-son combo. The centerpiece of tension was the unsettling moments between Reilly and Hill, as the son deals with having to share his mother with another man. The explorations into relationships worked because of believable, interesting dialog.
While the scenes with the two leads were pitch-perfect, those between Reilly and Hill was at times uneven, especially when it devolved into mind games. I appreciated the film makers' ambition of creating something edgy with Hill's character, but it got mean-spirited, making itdifficult to accept that aspect in context of the entire film.
Lastly, there were a couple of parts when characters say/do the dumb thing to serve the plot.
I enjoyed this quirky, interesting, risk-taking love story rooted in believable characters and motivations. Too bad the mind games fell flat for me.
What I would change
Not sure.
