Vernon

I kept waiting for the narrative in this story to move forward in some meaningful way. The story took a unique approach to telling its story but ultimately it was muddled, confusing and unsatisfying.

Beautiful presentation of the new songs on the Western Stars album. Springsteen shares his inspiration for each song while tying it in to his life journey. This movie is a continuation of sorts of his Broadway Show where the artists adds to his life story, his trials, his suffering, and simply his humanity. The setting for the concert is inspiring as is the moving orchestra. The movie gives textures to the songs and gave me a deeper love of them.

In general I am not a rom-com fan but my wife wanted to see for Mother's Day and so we saw it. It was very funny. It could have done with some of the cruder sight gags but for the most part the humor was intelligent and spot on. Rogen's character more than leaned left so I am guessing most of the negative reviews comes from those viewers where this would be a problem. Stick with the critics reviews. The slapstick is okay but the commentary on our world today will keep you laughing throughout. (And unlike one of the individual reviews, the entire audience in our showing were laughing their heads off.

I have mixed feelings about this movie. It could have easily taken the cheap way out as with so many other comedies these days with crass sophomoric humor to illicit approval from the audience. Instead it went for a more mature approach with comedy as an afterthought. Unfortunately it came up short in terms of resonating with me. Vince Vaughan did an admirable job as an individual tortured by being unsure as to what is the right thing to do. I disagree that this was his typical role. Not far removed but more of a stretch than I have seen in the past. Jennifer Connelly was fine as was Winona Ryder. Interesting to see Winona in a few movies lately. Kevin James does not yet allow me to think of him as a character other than Kevin James. Who knows if that will ever change. Bottom line is a B+ for effort but a C+ for execution.