Considering his body of work, this movie is only middling, in my opinion and not worthy of a 94. There is no emotional connection with the characters except perhaps 1 or 2. The timing linkages between the 3 stories was brilliant. I would wait to see this when is released later. Save you money.
OK, I accept that this is a heart warming story about a road trip and learning about family, caring for family, but can't get past the horrible depiction of Midwesterners as stupid and slow. I'm insulted, and I've lived in LA for 30 years. good performances by all the leads, especially June Squibb.
One of the best of 2013, I was laughing throughout the movie. Every character is very, very well played with Jennifer Lawrence a standout, as expected. Storyline was complicated but well told and never lost the audience. Recommend!
Perhaps it was the combo of the Zimmerman verdict in Florida, plus President Obama's speech, topped of by this movie, but 2 days later and I'm still thinking about it. This was remarkable film making by a novice director. It felt like a realistic portrait of a flawed man who didn't deserve what happened to him. The acting was very good, and who couldn't love the young actress who portrayed his daughter. It even felt like the train system, BART, became a part of the story. Great camera work. I highly recommend.
Absolutely the must see summer movie for 2012: sweet, funny, quirky, nails the time period (so for those of you 50+, you will walk back in time), great music choices and visually stunning - took my breath away over and over and over again. The acting by both adults and especially children is pitch perfect. You must see this movie!
Like another reviewer, I also left this film feeling very disturbed and sure I would have nightmares (didn't), so any film that can produce that kind of emotional reaction gets a thumbs up from me. It was not a perfect film, but overall really well done. I enjoyed the split time-line way of telling the story, always trying to guess what time period I was watching. Thought Elizabeth Olsen was very effective, but once again agree that Jennifer Lawrence would have been better cast (MarcDoyle we ought to compare notes on film). So it's worth the time and $, go.
Heard this movie did an incredible job of visually depicting his growing madness, and I wasn't disappointed. Excellent movie, excellent acting, found a few soft holes in the script, especially the interaction with his brother, but all in all a very good film. Great camera work.
Uneven script and seemed to jerk me from one emotion to another. Loved Leavitt, he's the best and does a great job with this character, dang person. What kept me involved was knowing this was someone's real life story. Could have done with less of the self-absorbed girlfriend and more with the mother. I still cried, as did the whole audience, but mostly had too many flashbacks with my own friends facing death.
Disclaimers first: could care less about baseball and haven't read the book; but I went with a huge baseball fan, huge A's fan and read the book. So, it was ok movie, enjoyed the phone trading scenes, which I'm told was introduced by this guy. Told it was a good reproduction of the book, so give the screenplay thumbs up. But overall, it was slow, slow, slow and way too long, far too many shots, long and short, devoted to Pitt's SERIOUS CONTEMPLATION. Ya, got it the first two times. So, if you like baseball or read the book, go see it. But otherwise, spend your money some other way.
I tried, but this movie failed me in delivering the philosophical message. Way too ambiguous. I appreciated the picture of life growing up in the 1950-60's, which brought back memories (especially of running around in the DDT fog, and how are we alive today?). However, the writer-director just never got me to buy the big picture questions of life that were supposedly under consideration. It gets this high a rating due to the stunning visuals.
I thought this was a great re-telling of an oft-told story, and well acted. We kind of knew where it was going to go the entire movie, but story and acting were so good that they kept me engaged. Both these actors are really super and had great chemistry together.
