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Reviews
Second Chance Christmas (2017)
Mostly just infuriating to watch
A woman gets hit by a car, has amnesia, and forgets she was about to divorce her do-nothing, slacker of a husband and forgets she runs a successful event-planning company. Of course all her loved ones lie to her so she doesn't remember all these distressing details. And the viewer is somehow supposed to feel that all this deception ultimately leads her to some grand revelation.
It's pretty insulting, really. Just skip this one.
The Greatest Showman (2017)
Visually stunning movie with brilliant music
I don't think this movie gives you much insight into PT Barnum. However, the cinematography is gorgeous, and the music is slick, radio-friendly, and just plain fun to listen to. All the actors give a ton of emotion to their performances, so the movie is much more emotionally impactful rather than intellectually significant. It almost felt more like a highly stylized music video than a movie, but that's really OK. It was so much fun to watch.
Let Them All Talk (2020)
Disappointing waste of excellent actresses and an interesting premise
Not so much a movie as it was an outline for a movie. I loved the premise and the glimpses of character we see, but the improvised rambling felt like aimless meandering. The viewer is left feeling frustrated and lost.
The movie would have been so much more interesting with a defined structure. I loved Bergan's cynical and sassy character, and her trolling for rich men on the cruise could have been very funny with some well-written gags. Wiest's character is selfless and passionate, and we get a few small indications of how that impulse manifested itself in her youth, but how much more interesting would it have been had we seen perhaps how her giving nature affected her life (both the good and the bad). Streep plays a writer whose work delves deeply into others' lives, and at the same time, she is unable to connect with anyone. Is she just self-absorbed, or does she yearn for human interaction? I wish we could have seen more of that struggle within her.
And most of all, we never really find out exactly what Streep's character has written about Bergan's character that made Bergan's husband divorce her so many years ago. It's hinted at, and I think I sort of figured it out. But that information needed to be spelled out for the viewer.
There's also another character I would have loved to see more of. A highly successful mystery writer is also on the ship. Streep wants to pooh-pooh him as a hack, but he's actually thoughtful in terms of his work and his ability to "read" other people. There's a scene in which Streep is giving a talk on board, and the mystery writer asks a question about one of her books that makes it clear that he deeply respects her writing, and you can see Streep's heart melt with joy at being acknowledged. It is one of the only really moving moments of the film.
Oh yeah, there's a subplot with Streep's nephew and the employee from her publisher assigned to her. Completely useless.
What a disappointment! What a waste!
The Swing of Things (2020)
You'll hate yourself for sitting through this mess
A funny, raunchy-but-charming movie about a wedding party inadvertently ending up at a swingers resort could have possibly been created, but this ain't it by a long shot. The movie is full of gross, over-the-top, nonsensical attempts at humor. There is barely any plot, mostly just a series of dumb scenes where the characters bumble along haplessly in ridiculous scenarios (one scene has the mother of the bride end up with bird semen on her face, which is supposed to be funny?). Luke Wilson spends the movie barking out his lines in almost a complete monotone with no variance in pitch or cadence. He comes off as if he were trying to get his scenes over with as soon as possible so he could get back to his hotel and order room service. I will say that Oliver Cooper as Ira (the "Jamaican" from New York) was at least a little funny and could have been a standout in a decent film. Also, Matt McCoy (as the father of the groom) has such a natural charm about him that he's always a joy to watch.
Miwosch do kwadratu (2021)
Skip it
Not much in this movie made sense. A main plot point is that apparently no one is able to recognize a woman if her hair is curly and she isn't wearing glasses (yes, it's the dreaded "her hair's in a ponytail and she's wearing glasses so she's plain" thing). And it's never quite clear what the male lead is. A model? The description says something about a journalist, but that's never mentioned in the movie. The whole thing is silly and contrived. But the biggest question is why would this woman go through so much trouble to try hide that she's a part-time model? That made no sense.