That gloriously transparent quote is from Emily Dickenson. Would that the movie itself were equally transparent. On the surface it's about a young girl, Emma Roberts, who is extremely appealing, who wants to become a poet,convinced of her talent, who insinuates her way into the life of an older once-successful poet,John Cusack, and becomes his protogé. For while anyway.
It's fundamentally an Entwiklungs story -- a naive girl leaves her suburban home and takes a job in an adult book store, is introduced to oddball characters, learns to smoke dope, shed her search for ultimate beauty and incorruptibility, and live in the unfolding moment.
I was unable to watch the end but it was fairly clear where it was headed. I'd be surprised if: (1) Emma Roberts doesn't find that the source of true art lies within one's self; (2) John Cusack doesn't get over his brooding and rediscover his self confidence; (3) Roberts doesn't wind up with the quietly practical, practically quiet, boy who works in the same adult book store, Evan Peters; and (4) Roberts never reconciles with her parents, with whom she quarrels constantly and whose house she left in a low dudgeon.
There are some memorable features on display here. One can't help notice that Emma Roberts is truly an attractively winsome young lady who may in fact be able to deliver a good performance. It's hard to tell from this single example. Another is that I'm sure glad I turned down that offer of a teaching job at Syracuse University because the movie illustrates exactly how sepulchral the weather and architecture of the city are. Another is that the film seems aimed at an audience, mostly female, of Roberts' age, who have not yet come face to face with urban debauchery only to fine that it's really pretty human underneath all that iconoclastic bluster. The cross-dressing homosexual Hispanic hair dresser turns out to be a somewhat nice guy.
The movie is no masterpiece but it's well written for the message it carries and will probably keep your interest until the end.
It's fundamentally an Entwiklungs story -- a naive girl leaves her suburban home and takes a job in an adult book store, is introduced to oddball characters, learns to smoke dope, shed her search for ultimate beauty and incorruptibility, and live in the unfolding moment.
I was unable to watch the end but it was fairly clear where it was headed. I'd be surprised if: (1) Emma Roberts doesn't find that the source of true art lies within one's self; (2) John Cusack doesn't get over his brooding and rediscover his self confidence; (3) Roberts doesn't wind up with the quietly practical, practically quiet, boy who works in the same adult book store, Evan Peters; and (4) Roberts never reconciles with her parents, with whom she quarrels constantly and whose house she left in a low dudgeon.
There are some memorable features on display here. One can't help notice that Emma Roberts is truly an attractively winsome young lady who may in fact be able to deliver a good performance. It's hard to tell from this single example. Another is that I'm sure glad I turned down that offer of a teaching job at Syracuse University because the movie illustrates exactly how sepulchral the weather and architecture of the city are. Another is that the film seems aimed at an audience, mostly female, of Roberts' age, who have not yet come face to face with urban debauchery only to fine that it's really pretty human underneath all that iconoclastic bluster. The cross-dressing homosexual Hispanic hair dresser turns out to be a somewhat nice guy.
The movie is no masterpiece but it's well written for the message it carries and will probably keep your interest until the end.