"Catherine Keener is Jane Fonda's daughter who comes with children to visit and ends up changing her life in some way" Bruce Beresford has made some movies over the years that have been well liked (Best Picture winning Driving Miss Daisy), but with his film this year he makes a horrible film with no saving elements to this film about unlikeable underwhelming characters who cannot help but complain about everything it their life. Catherine Keenner plays Diane a new york lawyer who when her husband asks for a divorce decides to Visit her mother Grace (Jane Fonda) in Woodstock bring along her two children Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen) the intelligent vegetarian and Cole (Nat Wolff) the wannabee filmmaker, but when they get to Woodstock they quickly find out Grandma is not one normal person but a woman who sells drugs, paints naked people and ruins her daughter's life.
The story introduces us to other characters like love interests for three people from New York, Jude (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) for Diane, Cole (Chace Crawford) for Zoe and Tara (Marissa O'Donnell). There are many other characters who are a part of this hippie tribe of people but these seven people seem to be the main characters of the film. This film fails first on setting up the relationships between the main characters for example after some fights from the couples after some annoying song of forgiveness plays they get straight back together which is a failure on the writers part first.
The performances are so bad because the actor's are not given much to do as the script makes all the characters unlikeable and the same type of people. Sure Fonda and Keener look like a mother daughter combo but they do not do much but stand there and say the words that were written for them and that's really the positive because the negative is too much to talk about. Elizabeth Olsen has been a breakout lately but the character of Zoe is not a good girl as she thinks too high of herself saying to many and thinking she is the best. The son is even worse as he try's to be sweet and lovable but to me he came off as boring and a nothing role which is also the way I felt about every other character in the film, even though the script try's to use them more then I wish the didn't.
This was not an enjoyable film and the talents of Keener, Fonda and Olsen are wasted as they are given nothing roles in a film not worth you time or effort. Badly written and directed this film was one of the worst I've seen this year so far.
MOVIE GRADE: F (MVP: Jane Fonda)
The story introduces us to other characters like love interests for three people from New York, Jude (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) for Diane, Cole (Chace Crawford) for Zoe and Tara (Marissa O'Donnell). There are many other characters who are a part of this hippie tribe of people but these seven people seem to be the main characters of the film. This film fails first on setting up the relationships between the main characters for example after some fights from the couples after some annoying song of forgiveness plays they get straight back together which is a failure on the writers part first.
The performances are so bad because the actor's are not given much to do as the script makes all the characters unlikeable and the same type of people. Sure Fonda and Keener look like a mother daughter combo but they do not do much but stand there and say the words that were written for them and that's really the positive because the negative is too much to talk about. Elizabeth Olsen has been a breakout lately but the character of Zoe is not a good girl as she thinks too high of herself saying to many and thinking she is the best. The son is even worse as he try's to be sweet and lovable but to me he came off as boring and a nothing role which is also the way I felt about every other character in the film, even though the script try's to use them more then I wish the didn't.
This was not an enjoyable film and the talents of Keener, Fonda and Olsen are wasted as they are given nothing roles in a film not worth you time or effort. Badly written and directed this film was one of the worst I've seen this year so far.
MOVIE GRADE: F (MVP: Jane Fonda)