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It’s not that bad a
movie in all honesty. More than likely you can thank the capable
shoulders of Ivan Reitman, Natalie Portman and some of the other cast
members for that. Even Ashton Kutcher isn’t awful in this movie. He’s
not great by any stretch of the imagination, but we’ll get there in our
bad. This movie is full of “I Know that Person” moments. From the girl
from the Office to Ludacris to the girls he fools around with to
Natalie’s friends in the movie and even to one moment where Ivan Reitman
shows up, there are a lot of bits in this movie like that. Hell, even
Cary Elwes makes a few small appearances in this movie, for no other
reason than he’s Cary Elwes and he can show up wherever the hell he
wants (coincidentally, he plays a doctor, and I kept hoping maybe this
was tied into his Saw character, but alas, no dice). Anyway, as I said,
the film is pretty innocuous. I love Natalie Portman and have seen just
about every movie she’s been in since she started, so I’ll see pretty
much any from here on out. She wins in that category as she’ll get my
money no matter what she does (damn you three Shitty Star Wars movies).
Kevin Kline is awesome in his very small role as Ashton’s father. Ashton
does okay. He isn’t playing the boisterous, loud-mouthed idiot he
normally does. He’s more reserved and that’s what the character called
for. He does some idiotic stuff, but it all fits with his arc. And for
that, I bow to his reeling it in for this film. Good work by all
involved.
 It’s all so
easy. You see it coming a mile away that they’ll get together and be
together by the end of the film that you have to just accept it early
on. Seeing this directed by Reitman I guess I was hoping for some kind
of curveball but it didn’t happen. They tried, but the ending was
foreseeable. For all intents and purposes, this movie rests on the
shoulders of Ashton and Natalie. Natalie has the acting prowess to pull
just about anything off, but Ashton does not.
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And a lot of the flat spots have to do with him. Not
reacting appropriately, not being a good actor, and just
genuinely not feeling real at all. It’s not always the case,
but he just fails a lot in this movie to be more than he is.
I can’t watch a movie starring or co-starring him and see
anything but Ashton Kutcher. Real actors immerse themselves
in the roles and disappear, I think he just makes the
character become him. It can work, but here, not so much. |
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Also, a major problem is there is too much going on. A lot of actors
in this film just pop in and out from time to time and we never really
get to know them. Ludacris gets barely anything to do, the sister and
soon-to-be brother-in-law of Natalie’s character and her mother and her
mom’s new lover get nothing to do. They’re just there to flesh out her
story and it seems a disservice to some fairly good actors like Olivia
Thirlby.
Not awful and not at all
what I was expecting by any means, this could have been a lot worse. Go
in looking for a good time and some choice Kevin Kline quotes and you’ll
be pretty happy leaving the theater. Go in expecting Ashton Kutcher to
give an Academy Award winning performance and disappointment will be the
only thing you’ll leave with. But look on the bright side, you get to
look at Natalie Portman looking attractive for nearly 2 hours and I
can’t help but think that’s a bad thing. Can you?
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