People, Places, Things (2015)

While I like intense romantic movies, the thrills, passion, heart soar moments, this movie is more a reflection of going through the motions of a break-up. I throughly enjoyed the movie...in all it's parts...and Jermaine just makes the character of Will seem real.

This morning a quite charming on my factors although I had some great laughs in it but I found that I didn't laugh a lot and I found I was backing and loved the character development of Will Henry. You can really feel his frustrations but you also feel sorry for him as his character goes through the pain. There are some "Noooo don't do that moments" especially when it comes to his ex-Girlfriend and in fact I found that I hated her character in all the best ways. Great cast! I also loved the use of the drawings as a passive way of telling the story. The art work was great and I loved! the scene where he looses his cool and in a very innocent way draws on his ex-Girlfriends current boyfriend's advertisement on the wall. All in All a very charming movie and I felt like it had abit of a Woody Allen feel to it.

Jemaine Clement plays a soft-spoken, passive, naive graphic novelist, university teacher and newly single father of two young girls. People, Places, Things is about the struggles of learning to let go and move forward after having your heart broken. That's pretty much it. Jemaine Clement plays his role somewhat passionless. It's hard to tell if it was a lack of dedication on his part or how writer/director James C. Strouse chose to make the character. The heart of the film is the character as a fun father but it doesn't seem like he is comfortable showing his daughters much affection. There is a very clear disconnection between him and the other characters in the film, which kind of leaves us feeling indifferent to him and his situation.Though the film follows Clement's character, all the female characters act circles around him and steal the show. Regina Hall, Jessica Williams, Stephanie Allynne, Aundrea Gadsby and Gia Gadsby all have much more interesting characters and are outstanding in their roles. It's a shame we didn't get to spend more time with them.This is suppose to be a heart-felt dramatic comedy but it's not funny and the heart is on auto-pilot, just slowly going through the motions, not fully present. The most insight we get from the main character is through his art, which was clever and needed, as through-out most of the film he seems bored and stale.

Having seen Mark Ruffalo take pieces of the scenery as a bipolar dad in Infinitely Polar Bear, I was happy to settle down with a slower, more-measured, drier dad with Jermaine Clement as Will Henry in the charming People Places Things. Both dads face fatherhood with good intentions and occasionally laughs, but it's Will's good will and unassuming persona that won my heart.A recently-single graphic novelist, Will is not an aggressive dad, and yet, with the two sweetest cello playing twins (Aundrea and Gia Gadsby—watch for these two to become bigger than the Olsens) this side of Disneyland, it's not difficult just to let them play at your heartstrings, as he does. His illustrating helps us get inside the head of this brainy introvert, who otherwise would be just a nice guy.His ex, Charlie (Stephanie Allynne), is sweet and warm but has had enough of his passivity and is ready to wed bulbous Gary (Michael Chernus), who takes passive to a new level. Both men are starving artists while she is from a wealthy family, elements that give richness to what could have been a clichéd character.In the Seinfeld tradition, nothing much happens, a sure sign that everything is happening. In this Sundance Grand-Jury-Prize-nominated film, Charlie is conflicted about Will just as Will connects with his student Kat's (Jessica Williams) mom, Diane (Regina Hall), another warm character who makes you think about switching to writing comic books to get girls. To be fair to Will, he's as charming as a nerd could be, well meaning, a great dad, and shyly clueless about the battle of the sexes.