Saw it. Really liked it - can’t really discuss plot/ending because it is set up like a standard Rom-Com but is not standard in how it unfolds.
But the movie is well crafted and acted - JGL’s Jon is a likeable young schmo and Scarlett’s Barbara is a great take on a Jersey Girl. He’s got a structure to his life - and you see this reflected in the structure of the filming - JGL rotates through the same settings, using the same angles, each time - and you see how his Jon character begins to change how he approaches each standard setting has he opens his mind.
His focus on porn vs. her focus on Romantic movies is done well - the cameo bits by Channing Tatum and Anne Hathaway in a movie are fun (and did anyone notice who was featuring in the Action feature Jon would’ve preferred to see? It was Jim Krasinski and Emily Blunt ;)) Tony Danza is great as his Dad, and Glenne Headly is funny as his mom (and Alison Brie is silent as his sister - funny). And Julianne Moore is great; ending up with a larger role than I had expected based on what I’d read.
Overall, strongly recommended. Anyone else see it?
Nope, as this is literally the first review I’ve read that didn’t fall somewhere in the range between “It was a steaming pile of shit” to “Eh, it was alright.”
I haven’t seen it yet* but no way is JGL going to involve himself so deeply in any “steaming pile of shit.” It may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but it’s a passion project and those are always worth watching to me, even if they’re ultimately unsuccessful. They’re not just works for hire, get in, pocket the money, get out (which JGL isn’t known for even as just an actor, at least, not since he left the Mickey Mouse Club).
I’m glad you liked it WordMan. We’ll see it sometime in the next week.
(* We were going to see it Saturday but the timing didn’t work out. We ended up seeing Rush and Young Detective Dee. Loved both!)
Saw it. Maybe an open spoiler but I’m glad how they developed Barbara’s character flaw slowly - kind of how some relationships develop. The coffee shop scene at the end was really well done.
I will never try to pass Tony Danza off as a brilliant thespian, but he’s more talented, and has better range and more ambition than most people think.
He’s done Eugene O’Neill’s ***The Iceman Cometh ***and Arthur Miller’s A View Fromthe Bridge on Broadway. He’s not JUST “the guy from Taxi.”
Tony Danza’s part doesn’t ask him to stretch very far – he’s playing another Italian schmo in a wife-beater. But he does it really, really well.
I liked it a lot (we tried to see Enough Said but the theater was full, so switched to Plan B). I thought the casting of Julianne Moore was odd; it was important that her character be more sensitive, more experienced than JGD’s usual conquests; but it wasn’t important the she be 20+ years his senior. But that’s what they did, and she did her usual great job.
I’ll never be able to hear the Apple power-up sound again without thinking of this movie.
I assume he has a “one for them; one for me” approach to picking roles - it just so happens that most of his “one for them” choices have been prestige-y roles like Christopher Nolan movies…
What I actually liked best about the movie is that it doesn’t end the way we’re all accustomed to seeing romantic comedies end.
NORMALLY, in a romantic comedy of this sort…
The callow young man comes to realize that his girlfriend was much smarter and more mature than he was, that he has to “grow up” and become the man SHE’S always dreamed of, so they can live happily ever after on HER terms.
But in this movie…
We see that Scarlett is just as immature as JGL in her own way, that HER romantic fantasies are just as unrealistic as JGL’s porn fantasies, and that he’s better off without her.
