Maya Forbes skillfully directs a loving tail about a man's frail grip with his emotions, and with his sanity. Even looser is his connection with his daughters and wife. Mark Ruffalo's character is attempting to reign in more things than an octopi cowboy while drinking enough to whet Nick Nolte's appetite.
His character makes me think that Adam Sandler and Hunter S. Thompson hopped in the Brundle teleportation machines to create a fragile but dominating human embodiment of a flailing bee. Or High Fidelity occurring inside your hippocampus set to a groovy soundtrack.
The only issue I had with the film was the director's attempt at painting too many biographies in such a short screen time. I related most with Ruffalo's character (being manic depressive myself), and found it very difficult to do this when the true centerpiece of the film rests in the children (who Ruffalo and Saldana also focus on, with an occasional squint at each other for the first half of the film).
All in all, a fun movie that doesn't demand much of your time. It's a delicate character study of a brilliant but fragile man's relationship with his initially frightened peers.
His character makes me think that Adam Sandler and Hunter S. Thompson hopped in the Brundle teleportation machines to create a fragile but dominating human embodiment of a flailing bee. Or High Fidelity occurring inside your hippocampus set to a groovy soundtrack.
The only issue I had with the film was the director's attempt at painting too many biographies in such a short screen time. I related most with Ruffalo's character (being manic depressive myself), and found it very difficult to do this when the true centerpiece of the film rests in the children (who Ruffalo and Saldana also focus on, with an occasional squint at each other for the first half of the film).
All in all, a fun movie that doesn't demand much of your time. It's a delicate character study of a brilliant but fragile man's relationship with his initially frightened peers.