Super cute movie. The first 3/4 are shockingly good - excellent dialogue, believable characters - formulaic, but well executed...
...Aside from the lack of WV accents that no one except the ever-fabulous Kathryn Hahn, the motel guy and an off-cam extra at the bar could even be bothered to attempt! Come on, it would have been so easy to add this great sense of place and culture, which the set designers/art directors did to PERFECTION. This is a stunningly beautiful movie. The lighting is also beautiful, making every scene unexpectedly like a thoughtful painting. Actually a little shocked at how gorgeous they made this film - to see these scenes popping off the screen like the original John Waters Hairspray or Kubrick was the last thing I expected from a fluffy romcom.
The actors all did wonderful jobs, aside from the almost complete lack of accents or even attempts. Their characters were unusually believable and so I suppose some of that is owed to the director, too.
The Piggly-Wiggly was a nice Appalachian touch; they really channeled the small town feel. There was some garish product placement here and there - a Sprite Can, a Little Debbie's Strawberry Shortcake box, etc. - semicringe. But the whole thing had heart, right up to the end, at which point the dialogue became the sort of trite nonsense the earlier part of the film had correctly ridiculed.
Did some producer take the script away from the original writers and rewrite the ending? It all just kind of collapses in the last 15 min or so of the film, suddenly characters act out of character, and everything becomes really kitschy and banal. There was no reason for this - up till then, the whole movie had followed the genre formula but still left its own unique stamp on it and really put in a lot of effort into making it an excellent example of the genre.
So it was nearly capped out at the 9 star max a romcom is ever allowed (and/or due to the usual obnoxious soundtrack), then lost 1 star due to lack of WV - or hell, even Southern - accents, and 2 stars due to the ending, and the fact that Pete would never say those things that way or leave his dog in the middle of the road all that time at the end, when one of his greatest flaws is his down-to-earth pragmatism. He likes his dog and is a vigilant, detail-oriented fellow. He would keep that boy out of the road, as long as his eyes were working...I know they just wanted to have the dog frame the credits, but that was the know-it-all micromanagerial producer talking, no doubt.
Anyway, well worth watching for the first 75% at least.
...Aside from the lack of WV accents that no one except the ever-fabulous Kathryn Hahn, the motel guy and an off-cam extra at the bar could even be bothered to attempt! Come on, it would have been so easy to add this great sense of place and culture, which the set designers/art directors did to PERFECTION. This is a stunningly beautiful movie. The lighting is also beautiful, making every scene unexpectedly like a thoughtful painting. Actually a little shocked at how gorgeous they made this film - to see these scenes popping off the screen like the original John Waters Hairspray or Kubrick was the last thing I expected from a fluffy romcom.
The actors all did wonderful jobs, aside from the almost complete lack of accents or even attempts. Their characters were unusually believable and so I suppose some of that is owed to the director, too.
The Piggly-Wiggly was a nice Appalachian touch; they really channeled the small town feel. There was some garish product placement here and there - a Sprite Can, a Little Debbie's Strawberry Shortcake box, etc. - semicringe. But the whole thing had heart, right up to the end, at which point the dialogue became the sort of trite nonsense the earlier part of the film had correctly ridiculed.
Did some producer take the script away from the original writers and rewrite the ending? It all just kind of collapses in the last 15 min or so of the film, suddenly characters act out of character, and everything becomes really kitschy and banal. There was no reason for this - up till then, the whole movie had followed the genre formula but still left its own unique stamp on it and really put in a lot of effort into making it an excellent example of the genre.
So it was nearly capped out at the 9 star max a romcom is ever allowed (and/or due to the usual obnoxious soundtrack), then lost 1 star due to lack of WV - or hell, even Southern - accents, and 2 stars due to the ending, and the fact that Pete would never say those things that way or leave his dog in the middle of the road all that time at the end, when one of his greatest flaws is his down-to-earth pragmatism. He likes his dog and is a vigilant, detail-oriented fellow. He would keep that boy out of the road, as long as his eyes were working...I know they just wanted to have the dog frame the credits, but that was the know-it-all micromanagerial producer talking, no doubt.
Anyway, well worth watching for the first 75% at least.