Well, like I'm sure many have, I also claimed to wanting to watch DeWitt in almost anything. 'YSS/Your sister's sister' was followed by that fracking movie with Matt Damon and John Krasinski, in which DeWitt didn't have much to do, but hey, she was there, the voice of Damon's conscience (mm-hmm).
Well, she's in this one too, re-teaming with her YSS director, Lynn Shelton. It's a surreal kinda tale, with the tone weaving more towards the comedic rather than the dramatic, which was the strength of YSS. It spins 2 parallel tales of siblings, where one's fortune in their chosen profession takes off, along with cementing certain personal relationships as well, while the other's fortunes nosedive in parallel. While observing both these whimsical tales is interesting, strangely enough, there's a connection lacking between the protagonists and us, the audience. The cast's fantastic, with Alison Janney having a nice coupla scenes (but not enough, esp. towards the end), along with Ellen 'Juno' Page, Scoot 'Killing them softly' 'Argo' 'In search of a midnight kiss' McNairy and Ron 'Office Space' 'Swingers' 'Drinking Buddies' Livingston (who's in this for 1 scene, sorry RL fans).
All of that casting comes to naught though, and I classify this under being one of those 'missed efforts', of which there seem to be so much floating out there. Still, its an Indie, and its got Rosemarie DeWitt, and I'd watch her in anything, even repeatedly.
Its also surprising that the movie doesn't use one of its key conceits (that kinda makes its appearance a little bit towards the end) to more effect, in spite of its having been 'used' by both of its key protagonists. And what does each 'learn' from their predicament - no answer. Where is their arc? Maybe there was one, but I definitely missed it. Why don't we go deeper into the metaphors for 'massage', 'Reiki' (one needs touch, and the other uses your 'aura', therefore needing no touch - what do they mean to one another in the context of this flick) and even 'dentistry' - no clue. All of this came across as kinda half-baked, but perhaps Shelton was leaning towards being abstract, the way most Indies wanna get to be. I did not get it the way it was perhaps intended.
Well, all that being said, I need to watch it for DeWitt once again, though its kinda surprising that Pais gets more screen-time than she does.
Well, she's in this one too, re-teaming with her YSS director, Lynn Shelton. It's a surreal kinda tale, with the tone weaving more towards the comedic rather than the dramatic, which was the strength of YSS. It spins 2 parallel tales of siblings, where one's fortune in their chosen profession takes off, along with cementing certain personal relationships as well, while the other's fortunes nosedive in parallel. While observing both these whimsical tales is interesting, strangely enough, there's a connection lacking between the protagonists and us, the audience. The cast's fantastic, with Alison Janney having a nice coupla scenes (but not enough, esp. towards the end), along with Ellen 'Juno' Page, Scoot 'Killing them softly' 'Argo' 'In search of a midnight kiss' McNairy and Ron 'Office Space' 'Swingers' 'Drinking Buddies' Livingston (who's in this for 1 scene, sorry RL fans).
All of that casting comes to naught though, and I classify this under being one of those 'missed efforts', of which there seem to be so much floating out there. Still, its an Indie, and its got Rosemarie DeWitt, and I'd watch her in anything, even repeatedly.
Its also surprising that the movie doesn't use one of its key conceits (that kinda makes its appearance a little bit towards the end) to more effect, in spite of its having been 'used' by both of its key protagonists. And what does each 'learn' from their predicament - no answer. Where is their arc? Maybe there was one, but I definitely missed it. Why don't we go deeper into the metaphors for 'massage', 'Reiki' (one needs touch, and the other uses your 'aura', therefore needing no touch - what do they mean to one another in the context of this flick) and even 'dentistry' - no clue. All of this came across as kinda half-baked, but perhaps Shelton was leaning towards being abstract, the way most Indies wanna get to be. I did not get it the way it was perhaps intended.
Well, all that being said, I need to watch it for DeWitt once again, though its kinda surprising that Pais gets more screen-time than she does.