Hello I Must Be Going (2012)

I know there is a need in many to see a clear-cut happy end. And sure, the happy end in this movie is much more subtle than that - but if you pay careful attention, you will definitely find it. Because this movie is not about the 'American dream', it is about transformation, self-development, maturing. It is about the delicate ways life helps us to change for the better - by sending a sign, a book, a person, etc. that serves as a mirror. And by getting a glimpse of how things really are in your life, in your soul, you make the right decision - and can continue at a higher level.Delicate story, cute acting, intriguing story-line - a real masterpiece that uses subtle tools, still works like a charm. 10/10

i'm not use to writing reviews but hey, this is a really good watch, interesting movie, great cast, i loved it. @ least it's a story we can all relate to, i think Melanie Lynskey Killed it, best role i have ever seen her in. as the movie progress you get captured in the story telling and you can't just wait to see what happens in the next scene, not the kind of movie you'll fall asleep watching. very good acting, and don't expect to see some wild "sex scenes" when i read the plot initially my mind went straight to seeing Melanie Lynskey "wildin out" i know, i know .. but overall the movie is great, I loved it, go see it.

Hello I Must Be Going is not a glamorous Hollywood film. Not that I don't enjoy the big budget blockbusters every once in a while, but this film was a refreshing departure. There are no flashy cuts or fast-paced action sequences, because it is attempting to tell a far more intimate story. The film is not rushing you along with plot. When the characters talk, they are talking about their inner most fears and desires.The subject of the film, whose life we are let into, is Amy Minksy. A character, who if we met in real life, we would want to walk up to her and just give her a hug. When we first meet Amy, we find out that she is a woman in her mid-thirties, has just been divorced, and is living with her parents at home again. To call her depressed would be wrong, she seems more to me like a person who is stuck, not knowing what direction to go in for the rest of her life. She is slightly assisted in finding her way through the newfound love/lust she gets from 19-year-old Jeremy. An actor, who hates acting on stage, but likes to pretend he is gay in his real world life. They are the perfect couple for each other, and yet the worst, because at any minute the families could find out about their affair, and cause much embarrassment for the two families and trouble in a certain business venture.This film shows us Amy's life, in all of her moments of loneliness, happiness, embarrassment, lust, and so on. And the great thing about the film is it doesn't try to sugar coat anything. The movie feels more real than most I've seen. All the characters that surround Amy have hopes and dreams. You get the impression that everyone has some sort of secret, the audience is just only aware of Amy's. And the most interesting and successful sequences of the film are when those desires are exposed, causing conflicts for the other characters, as it would in real life. All of the actors do a fantastic job of making their characters feel real. And I can't imagine it to have been too difficult for the actors, since the screenwriter seems to know every detail of every character's personal life story, without abruptly stating it in dialog. The script is brilliantly subtle in that way.I think that some people might have a hard time sitting through Hello I Must Be Going, because it is in a lot of ways very different from the usual. The story is told to the audience in quiet conversation. And sometimes, the film can feel repetitive and claustrophobic. There are multiple scenes when Amy and Jeremy go off to have their affair in a different place than before. Although we do learn new information about them in every scene, they still seem to be stuck doing the same things over and over again, in different positions and different places, but really the same thing. Also the movie is told through Amy's eyes, so we only see the things she sees and does, so mainly Jeremy. Amy is unemployed and Jeremy is just a kid, so both individuals don't do much. While I understand the movie is about Amy and should be mostly from her point of view, I wish the film opened up a bit more and explored some of the other characters in their own world. In one particular scene, we learn about Amy's mother Ruth, who is played by the wonderful Blythe Danner. Through most of the film, Amy and Ruth are at each other's throats. But there is a moment they have of understanding one another near the end of the film, which was my favorite scene of the movie, particularly because Blythe Danner and Melanie Lynskey are so fantastic in the scene, and I must say in the entire film.The ending felt a little sudden. Characters continuously ask Amy throughout the film what she wants to do with her life, but she never has an answer. And by the end, she still doesn't have an answer. But she seems okay with that. We don't get the perfect happy ending for Amy, but we get the sense that she is happy. Perhaps that is the point the film is trying to make, sometimes you just don't know what you want to do in life. Maybe the point of the film is it doesn't matter what you do as long as your happy, which Amy seemed to be for a brief moment with Jeremy. Still her plan for what she wants to do by the end of the film doesn't seem like much of an improvement over her plan at the beginning of wearing the same shirt and watching the Marx Brothers everyday. The entire film, we watch Amy through all of her misery, it would have been nice to give her that moment of: "she's going to be all right." Well, she seems perfectly content. So let's just hope she can figure it out.

Eight out of ten I'm not sure why this nice little indie wound up with a 4.5 rating on IMDb. It deserves far better. I found the acting very convincing. Amy's a young 30-something woman, recently divorced, seeking solace staying with her parents in a very plosh CT house. Dad's a high-powered attorney dying to retire and tour the world (or so he says at the beginning) and mom is the usual burbs housewife with too much money to know what to do with.Amy's been with them going on several months and trying to piece back her shattered life after her husband left her from a fling. And clearly she's having a lot of trouble at it. At an arranged dinner get-together she joins her parents, brother and wife, and an investor with second wife and step-son (Jeremy) in tow. Jeremy senses a soul as lost as he and doesn't waste time pursuing Amy. The catch is Jeremy's nineteen. But a romance gets going that lights up Amy's fire and that's exactly what she needs. What Jeremy senses in Amy is what he's rebelling against in himself. Her allowing others to control her life and influence how she should live it.Although not spectacularly pretty, Amy (Melanie Lynskey) managers to portray a woman confused about how she can move forward with her life and she displays confusion, humor, courage, resoluteness, messedupness, and yes, love and affection. It helps that she's basically a good person. This is true of her family too. In a more toxic environment she might have failed disastrously. So the challenges facing her, although difficult, could have been made more challenging in a different setting, creating more tension and conflict for her character. Perhaps this is one reason for the low rating. But for the kind of film this one aims at, it does delightfully well.With his deep brooding looks, short dark hair and dark complexion Christopher Abbot reminded me of Marlon Brando as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar (1953). Great to see John Rubinstein. I drew a b&w pencil sketch of his father taken from the cover of one of his albums back when (1961).