You know what you're getting into with one of his movies. It's sort of simpleminded, feel-good, lightweight fare for progressive minded people.
That's what you have here, along with beautiful Hawaiian settings.
Major spoilers ahead.
The two emotional climaxes of the movie really bothered me upon reflection. The first is when two men, rivals, have a bro conversation without saying a word. It is subtitled -yuk yuk. At first it seems clever, but then it really began to bother me after the movie was over. This is some kind of male fantasy that it is possible to have meaningful communication with people you are "intimate" with without having to do the hard work of formulating words and listening . Nonsense.
The final emotional scene is of a 13-year-old girl discovering her father is not her father, that the Cooper character is. She gets teary- eyed, runs out of dance class, and hugs him. Guys, I was a 13-year-old girl and knew many. This is not how we behave! Thrown crockery, slammed doors, screaming "I hate you!" is more like it. Running away, sleeping with a bad boy, shooting up the garage, cutting wrists? All are more likely. But it's a feel-good movie, so realism be damned.
Thus, the two moments that are supposed to warm our hearts fail for me . However I'm rating it higher then I might otherwise because of the ludicrous controversy. Remember when Christians stood outside that movie about Jesus protesting without knowing a thing about it or having ever having seen it? Yeah, well, this is what happened here. How reassuring to know that people on all sides of the political/cultural spectrum can be total idiots, getting huffy about the very content that panders to them.
That's what you have here, along with beautiful Hawaiian settings.
Major spoilers ahead.
The two emotional climaxes of the movie really bothered me upon reflection. The first is when two men, rivals, have a bro conversation without saying a word. It is subtitled -yuk yuk. At first it seems clever, but then it really began to bother me after the movie was over. This is some kind of male fantasy that it is possible to have meaningful communication with people you are "intimate" with without having to do the hard work of formulating words and listening . Nonsense.
The final emotional scene is of a 13-year-old girl discovering her father is not her father, that the Cooper character is. She gets teary- eyed, runs out of dance class, and hugs him. Guys, I was a 13-year-old girl and knew many. This is not how we behave! Thrown crockery, slammed doors, screaming "I hate you!" is more like it. Running away, sleeping with a bad boy, shooting up the garage, cutting wrists? All are more likely. But it's a feel-good movie, so realism be damned.
Thus, the two moments that are supposed to warm our hearts fail for me . However I'm rating it higher then I might otherwise because of the ludicrous controversy. Remember when Christians stood outside that movie about Jesus protesting without knowing a thing about it or having ever having seen it? Yeah, well, this is what happened here. How reassuring to know that people on all sides of the political/cultural spectrum can be total idiots, getting huffy about the very content that panders to them.