SPOILERS GALORE AHEAD!
The cast is very good, the technical aspects of the film are fine, and the directing seems solid (not that the material is challenging), but the screenplay is a train wreck. Too many plots, no laughs, no drama, just an jumble of ideas. Any one of them might have made a good film, with a second as one sub-plot. But in this movie, you get 'em all: Slightly too-old guy falls for slightly too-young girl; Young guy falls for hot-ish mom instead of daughter; Woman deals with cancer; Woman gets closer to teenage daughter; Woman deals with cheating husband; Young guy moves in with ailing, unappreciated grandmother, learns life lessons; Teenage girl realizes she likes geeky sweet kid, not arrogant jock douchebag. ALL of these plots are crammed into the movie, along with a precocious-kid cliché, and none really pay off. Carter is a soft-core porn writer, but this does not influence the plot in any way, nor does it inform us of his character--there's nothing "porn" about him. His relationship with his ailing grandmother has no resonance and is played for laughs(and fails), and Carter learns nothing from her. Sarah must battle cancer knowing her husband is having an affair. She believes it's a secret, but daughter Lucy also knows. But husband Nelson is never called out and never confesses, and Lucy and Mom never learn that they both know of the affair. I kept waiting for the movie to focus--it never did.
The soundtrack is a problem too. Great songs, but a loud pop soundtrack does not belong in this film.
The cast is very good, the technical aspects of the film are fine, and the directing seems solid (not that the material is challenging), but the screenplay is a train wreck. Too many plots, no laughs, no drama, just an jumble of ideas. Any one of them might have made a good film, with a second as one sub-plot. But in this movie, you get 'em all: Slightly too-old guy falls for slightly too-young girl; Young guy falls for hot-ish mom instead of daughter; Woman deals with cancer; Woman gets closer to teenage daughter; Woman deals with cheating husband; Young guy moves in with ailing, unappreciated grandmother, learns life lessons; Teenage girl realizes she likes geeky sweet kid, not arrogant jock douchebag. ALL of these plots are crammed into the movie, along with a precocious-kid cliché, and none really pay off. Carter is a soft-core porn writer, but this does not influence the plot in any way, nor does it inform us of his character--there's nothing "porn" about him. His relationship with his ailing grandmother has no resonance and is played for laughs(and fails), and Carter learns nothing from her. Sarah must battle cancer knowing her husband is having an affair. She believes it's a secret, but daughter Lucy also knows. But husband Nelson is never called out and never confesses, and Lucy and Mom never learn that they both know of the affair. I kept waiting for the movie to focus--it never did.
The soundtrack is a problem too. Great songs, but a loud pop soundtrack does not belong in this film.