... Well, something to point out to the director, Mr. Chick: if the character who said this was in some way a mouthpiece for your own self, then you failed miserably! (I understand more how the guy who wanted his money back felt... ) All we have here is a tedious merry-go-round of people who make 'bad decisions' left, right and centre. When you're the objective bystander and a friend comes to you after yet another foul-up, in most cases you grin and bear it because the person you're listening to shares a bond with yourself; a connection. I wouldn't even have any feeling for all this if it were real-life friends I knew intimately. It's like being the only one sober in a room full of drunks - they're all too 'self-absorbed' to take seriously... ! The vast majority of people would surely be even LESS keen if they were hearing the troubles of some isolated stranger who they're completely alienated from? That's what this film is like - a random person accosting you in the street and acting like the 'Ancient Mariner', and all the while you're desperately looking for a way out...
Why should I care about the infidelities and indiscretions of these characters when absolutely no sense of 'permenance' even begins to rear its head until past the halfway mark of the film, anyway? We've watched incredulously as they've been carelessly irresponsible, but hey, now we should automatically begin to care because... what, they're older? With age does not come greater significance; the mistakes you made at 20 are just as stupid if done at 35; so don't ask me to care to any greater degree just because this time life has made it sure that you have more to lose...
It could have been 'emotional' in the heady, 'youthful' stage of the film had Thea been shown to be 'serious' about her thing with Coles; but she isn't, until she suddenly turns on the taps when he admits he 'meaninglessly cheated'; and the collective seem to be angling for an outpouring of sympathy for her! The other two 'empty vessels' at this point failed to make me care much, either... So, all of a sudden my feelings are expected to 'kick in' later on, just because the players have advanced in age? I don't think so, somehow! To get me thinking about relationships; I have to be able to say: "OK, maybe I don't agree, but I can see why you might've done that". Instead, all that was presented to me was a morass of those bad decisions that I talked about... It's nothing but pure undiluted LAZINESS to work from the stereotypical template that all college students fornicate first and ask questions later; and then take the bad habits of 'coupling' that they learnt when they were in study with them into the outside world. The most critical bad decision I made was to watch this; and about the only thing it made me "think" was how long before it was over, so I could go do something else.
Why should I care about the infidelities and indiscretions of these characters when absolutely no sense of 'permenance' even begins to rear its head until past the halfway mark of the film, anyway? We've watched incredulously as they've been carelessly irresponsible, but hey, now we should automatically begin to care because... what, they're older? With age does not come greater significance; the mistakes you made at 20 are just as stupid if done at 35; so don't ask me to care to any greater degree just because this time life has made it sure that you have more to lose...
It could have been 'emotional' in the heady, 'youthful' stage of the film had Thea been shown to be 'serious' about her thing with Coles; but she isn't, until she suddenly turns on the taps when he admits he 'meaninglessly cheated'; and the collective seem to be angling for an outpouring of sympathy for her! The other two 'empty vessels' at this point failed to make me care much, either... So, all of a sudden my feelings are expected to 'kick in' later on, just because the players have advanced in age? I don't think so, somehow! To get me thinking about relationships; I have to be able to say: "OK, maybe I don't agree, but I can see why you might've done that". Instead, all that was presented to me was a morass of those bad decisions that I talked about... It's nothing but pure undiluted LAZINESS to work from the stereotypical template that all college students fornicate first and ask questions later; and then take the bad habits of 'coupling' that they learnt when they were in study with them into the outside world. The most critical bad decision I made was to watch this; and about the only thing it made me "think" was how long before it was over, so I could go do something else.