The Only Living Boy in New York (2017)
A surprise, from a film I hadn't heard about. It's flawed, it has some gaffes in the writing, and it uses some overused ideas (including the whole world of writers writing about being writers). But the acting is good, and the sentiment is kept in check (most of the time) so that it works overall. Enjoyable if nothing remarkable.
There is a surprising number of known actors here, from Pierce Brosnan to Wallace Shawn (briefly). Callum Turner, the leading man (the only living boy), is likable but a weak link overall. He is meant to be in a crisis on every level, and he kind of shows it but you feel something missing in the performance. And maybe the writing.
Ah, the writing. This is a movie about writers. And there are so many clichés here you can fill a salt shaker with them. Yeah, we love interpersonal drama, and the troubled mom and the troubled dad and the unlikely wise old man next door not to mention the utterly improbably girlfriend who isn't a girlfriend but who hangs on steadily anyway. It's a mashup of heart tugging types, and our star is in the middle navigating it all with really no rudder
Or you might say that Jeff Bridges is his rudder. He's a cliché, too, of course, but his wisdom is good enough to give the movie some depth. I'd say the smarts of Kate Beckinsale's character, the mistress/lover with a troubled past and a surprisingly steady head on her shoulders, rises above the rest. Her performance is spot on, too.
The upshot here is that the movie has a lot of little things to like, and the plot, which is riddled with little annoying emotional tricks, still has some honesty to it and you'll likely enjoy it all for what it is.
A surprise, from a film I hadn't heard about. It's flawed, it has some gaffes in the writing, and it uses some overused ideas (including the whole world of writers writing about being writers). But the acting is good, and the sentiment is kept in check (most of the time) so that it works overall. Enjoyable if nothing remarkable.
There is a surprising number of known actors here, from Pierce Brosnan to Wallace Shawn (briefly). Callum Turner, the leading man (the only living boy), is likable but a weak link overall. He is meant to be in a crisis on every level, and he kind of shows it but you feel something missing in the performance. And maybe the writing.
Ah, the writing. This is a movie about writers. And there are so many clichés here you can fill a salt shaker with them. Yeah, we love interpersonal drama, and the troubled mom and the troubled dad and the unlikely wise old man next door not to mention the utterly improbably girlfriend who isn't a girlfriend but who hangs on steadily anyway. It's a mashup of heart tugging types, and our star is in the middle navigating it all with really no rudder
Or you might say that Jeff Bridges is his rudder. He's a cliché, too, of course, but his wisdom is good enough to give the movie some depth. I'd say the smarts of Kate Beckinsale's character, the mistress/lover with a troubled past and a surprisingly steady head on her shoulders, rises above the rest. Her performance is spot on, too.
The upshot here is that the movie has a lot of little things to like, and the plot, which is riddled with little annoying emotional tricks, still has some honesty to it and you'll likely enjoy it all for what it is.