Michael's Movie Grade: F A depressing dirge of a movie. It is hard to argue with this movie being sad. There are few things sadder than the death of a baby or the falling apart of a marriage. These things are naturally sad and any movie that has either of these is going to cause tears. However once you get past the natural sadness of the subject matter there is little else to like about this film. In fact this is simply an incredibly unpleasant way to spend 2 hours. The characters are largely unlikable and too much of the running time is spent on them just being unlikable. This does not succeed in giving the film more depth or making it feel more real. Instead it simply makes it more of a chore to sit through. The husband (Shia LaBeouf) is certainly the worst offender in this case. Pretty much any scene with this character in it. One rape like scene made me simply want to leave the room until it was over. While it took a lot of endurance to make it that far, this scene increases the amount of endurance needed much further. This is not helped by the story simply consisting of one depressing movie cliché after another. This would be forgivable if there was any depth or point beyond things that are obviously depressing are depressing. Unfortunately the only purpose this movie has is to make one miserable. This is heightened by the fact that there is never a light scene in this whole movie. These scenes however are important to any feature length sad film. You need light scenes sometimes thrown in, not to offset the sad scenes but rather so that the film doesn't become one relentless depressing experience to the point where it is simply hard to watch. There is a strong difference between movies with depressing scenes or depressing endings and movies that are just depressing dirges. This is something that is equally true in mainstream entertainment and art house films. Of course this isn't helped by the fact that the sadness of this movie doesn't come from good writing or good characters but rather only from using events that are depressing simply because they exist. Even if this movie was better made I can't picture anyone actually wanting to watch this. The fact that this movie isn't better made only furthers that point. This movie is even dogged down further by dialogue and story points that feel incredibly forced (a conversation about The White Stripes being a prime example). The movie also struggles to even find its own focus at points as much of the run time seems like pointless padding. While it still wouldn't be a good movie, there was definitely a lot more editing to be done here. Perhaps there are those who will get something out of this film that I didn't, but as far as I can see the only reason to watch this is if you feel like you are simply not depressed enough. -Michael J. Ruhland
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