Stuck in Love (2013)

The premise is about a family of writers, a father, daughter and son dealing with love over the course of a year. The father is a divorcee and still has conflicting feelings for his ex-wife who he has been apart from for 3 years. It's a story about finding love and holding onto it, i guess another theme could be to not rush head on into love for fear of getting hurt and doing this by learning from personal experience (for instance the daughter and son learning from their parents).This film has an amazing cast (amazing as in great performances, it's not exactly an A-list cast which i think would ruin it due to the genre of the film) and uses the actors to the absolute best of it's abilities.One of the best performances in this movie is probably Greg Kinnear as he strikes the balance between a good and a bad father through no fault of his own as he's caught up in the complexities of his own love life. Which is another great thing about this film, as the children are supposed to be between 17-19 years old, they actually go through the same problems as the adults, thus making everyone in this film equal and shows that no matter who you are or what you're background is, everyone gets hurt by love, and more or less everyone reacts the same.If I had one problem with this film it's that it could have been about 20-30 minutes longer as it's one of those films where you want to know more back story of the characters, particularly Greg Kinnear's.But as I say, this film couldn't have used the actors better for this genre. To compliment the acting and great story the soundtrack is one of the best I've heard for a long time. The first track we hear is "Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros" which is an amazing, comforting, happy, melancholic song in of itself, but it opens the film with a huge bang of presumptions that enter your mind of where this film could lead you.It leads you exactly where you want it to.There will be some things I've left out purposefully as I hate any reviews or trailers that just show you all the best bits and you go to see the movie and find that they really were the ONLY good bits. So watch the movie and enjoy it for what it is!

Acting/Cast: PR: Solid - 65 - The cast is well put together and has both established stars (Kinnear, Connelly, Bell) and upcoming and hopfeul players (Collins, Wolff, Lerman). All fit their roles and play their parts well, but there is no standout performances here and it is about what you would expect from this crew.Directing/Production: PR: Average - 55 - There is nothing but average directing and production in this film. It has some slow spots and really doesn't have any strong spots that would make it anything but average. The cinematography of beach is nice and fitting for the movie and theme, but that is the one thing that sticks out to me most.Story: PR: Average - 50 - A father, his ex-wife, and their children are all in pivotal relationship stages in their lives and have the passion for writing in common (outside of the ex-wife). While all their stories and relationships are different and unique, they all are ultimately predictable. The main plot here is nothing new and very average overall.Entertainment Value: PR: Average - 55 - I found myself entertained, but not to the point of not getting sidetracked or even being able to step away for a few minutes and not feeling that I missed much. Was an okay watch, but don't expect I will watch again in the future.Power Rating: 56.25

In the vein of full disclosure, I lost interest in this film and didn't finish it, and therefore normally wouldn't bother writing a review about such a nondescript film. However, I was greatly perturbed about the casual drug use of the teenage characters, and the amoral nature of this film . The cynical loose woman angle has been done to death, and the two dimensional characters that comprise the cast are just a regurgitation of characters that one will find in just about every indie film about love. These supposed brilliant writers' views are so shallow and mainstream that I struggled to find them believable as talented writers who question the world. Has the world become so shallow that this is what constitutes deep thinking and meaningful relationships?This film about writers is not a film that true writers will enjoy. It lacks depth, imagination and ingenuity.

The only thing worse than the acting is the plot. Christmas themed movie with a mid-level star cast but with no believable characters (except maybe the dog near the beginning). Writers love to write about other writers when they have nothing else to write about. This is the story of a privileged family unhappy at Christmas. None of the characters have back story and I found everyone unlikable. I found the daughter Samantha particularly unbelievable, a college girl who sleeps around constantly and then finally agrees to date a nice boy named Lou who is a nice guy and pretty darn boring. I really liked when Samantha cried, great application of fake tears. Just a terrible movie.