I sat through this film with an open mind, despite seeing some of the one star reviews trashing it as the worst film ever; It's true that it's not the best film in the world, but it's certainly not the worst.
I came out of it feeling that it did a pretty good job of telling the story of several purposefully flawed characters and the relationships between them. Characters that are human, that have errors in judgement and make mistakes, that lie, and that use each other for their own gain, while ultimately being people that are seeking redemption for their indiscretions and insecurities.
My main issue with the film was that it didn't explore the characters to their full potential. We get glimpses of their back stories, glimpses of why they're in the positions they're in, and glimpses of their real-world flaws; but there are so many characters and stories that there's not enough time to explore it all. The first half of the film plods along with too much filler that doesn't add much value to the story or characters, while the second half is much improved but leaves little time to patch up the holes.
It would have been nice to flesh out the characters. Particularly Nick (Jamie Dornan) and David (Billy Crystal, who feels especially underused), and there's not much to explain why Tara (Lola Kirke) is in the crisis she is. Similarly we learn from early in the film that lead character Andrea (Jemima Kirke) is recovering from addiction and suffering from writers block, but like her on-screen and real-life sister, we never really find out what happened at that time, or how she got to where she is.
Ultimately, it's a fairly decent film that's as flawed as its characters. With a little more flesh on the bones of the story and characters, this could have been great drama. Unfortunately, everything feels underdeveloped and rushed.
Worth a watch if you like slower-paced character driven pieces, but don't expect it to be perfect.
I came out of it feeling that it did a pretty good job of telling the story of several purposefully flawed characters and the relationships between them. Characters that are human, that have errors in judgement and make mistakes, that lie, and that use each other for their own gain, while ultimately being people that are seeking redemption for their indiscretions and insecurities.
My main issue with the film was that it didn't explore the characters to their full potential. We get glimpses of their back stories, glimpses of why they're in the positions they're in, and glimpses of their real-world flaws; but there are so many characters and stories that there's not enough time to explore it all. The first half of the film plods along with too much filler that doesn't add much value to the story or characters, while the second half is much improved but leaves little time to patch up the holes.
It would have been nice to flesh out the characters. Particularly Nick (Jamie Dornan) and David (Billy Crystal, who feels especially underused), and there's not much to explain why Tara (Lola Kirke) is in the crisis she is. Similarly we learn from early in the film that lead character Andrea (Jemima Kirke) is recovering from addiction and suffering from writers block, but like her on-screen and real-life sister, we never really find out what happened at that time, or how she got to where she is.
Ultimately, it's a fairly decent film that's as flawed as its characters. With a little more flesh on the bones of the story and characters, this could have been great drama. Unfortunately, everything feels underdeveloped and rushed.
Worth a watch if you like slower-paced character driven pieces, but don't expect it to be perfect.