{"id":34419,"date":"2021-01-19T00:01:01","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T05:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=34419"},"modified":"2021-01-18T12:18:42","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T17:18:42","slug":"will-reading-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/19\/will-reading-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Reading (2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Director Jamie Insalaco\u2019s movie has a lot going for it as a comedy about adults relying on one big score to adjust their lives once again. But once everything came to a close, \u201cWill Reading\u201d ends up being a cinematic experience that\u2019s hindered by so many of its flaws, in spite of so much it brings to the table. I wouldn\u2019t say that I\u2019d recommend it, but if you\u2019re in the market for a movie that feels like a zany send up of \u201cThe Big Chill.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wendy is preparing to host an evening at her home for friends, during which they\u00a0will\u00a0read an addendum to her recently\u00a0deceased husband’s\u00a0will. Her husband’s twin brother, his college roommate and friends all attend to find out exactly what\u00a0Will\u00a0left them in his…\u00a0will.\u00a0 Is there enough to change their fortunes?\u00a0 Can they learn to work together as friends?\u00a0 The very idea of money changes everything. Jamie Insalaco\u2019s \u201cWill Reading\u201d makes a big to do about a movie that\u2019s basically just an ensemble comedy about a group of people at the crossroads of their lives.<\/p>\n

Rather than play it for melodrama, Insalaco opts instead for a heavily comedic tone, exploring how these weird individuals react to the idea of being given immense wealth by their friend, and how they might fix, or further destroy, their lives. \u201cWill Reading\u201d often feels like a stage play, which can distract from the attempted realism of the narrative most times, especially as the cast spend their time miming eating, and drinking. Everything on set feels so artificial that it was tough to really lose myself in to the narrative. That said, the movie is stolen by Katie Weigl, whose performance is complex and very funny.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a character stuck between a rock and a hard place as she\u2019s desperate for financial relief, but has to keep up the show of grief stricken widow most of the time. The rest of the cast, sadly, seems to be going for scenery chewing most of the time, but thankfully that never really hinders the film\u2019s momentum. The movies veers off in to so many directions including a clumsy musical number, and sadly so much of the emotional weight behind Will\u2019s death is lost. The story also doesn\u2019t seem to know where to go once the big development occurs in the finale, prompting writer Insalaco to simply end the movie with a ton of unresolved plot lines and lingering questions. \u201cWill Reading\u201d is a perfectly fine comedy. It\u2019s teeming with potential and does manage to push ahead a good performance or two and some creative ideas, it\u2019s just bogged down by massive tonal inconsistencies, and plot questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Jamie Insalaco\u2019s movie has a lot going for it as a comedy about adults relying on one big score to adjust their lives once again. But once everything came to a close, \u201cWill Reading\u201d ends up being a cinematic experience that\u2019s hindered by so many of its flaws, in spite of so much it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[219,302,501,700,703],"class_list":["post-34419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-comedy","tag-drama","tag-indie-film","tag-musical","tag-mystery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34421,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34419\/revisions\/34421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}