Sunday, 16 June 2013

Stuck In Love (2012, Dir. Josh Boone, USA) (Cert: 15/R) ***



 
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins, Nat Wolff

 

A successful writer, William Borgens (Kinnear) has struggled with writing after being estranged from his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and encourages his children to write as well. His daughter, Samantha (Collins) is just about to have her first novel published, whilst son Rusty (Wolff) is trying to become a published writer whilst pining for a classmate (Liana Liberato). As William tries to get on with his life, though clearly not ready to move on, the cynical Samantha starts seeing an idealistic musician/writer (Logan Lerman) and Rusty decides to gain some life experience to help his writing.

 

Stuck In Love is a very earnest film, that often feels the need to say something profound about love and life as well showing a clear affection for the written word. There are some great elements in the film, with great performances and casting (Lily Collins looks the spitting image of a young Jennifer Connelly, making the mother/daughter relation believable) but the film never coalesces to anything beyond satisfactory. An element of this is to do with how the written word is expressed thematically in film, a visual medium. The characters are full of snappy and witty remarks, but their believability as vulnerable human beings is often questionable (though not completely discarded). On a technical level, the film also has some issues, at least initially, with having a consistent sound quality, switching between dialogue being muffled one moment and clear the next. The film has something of a passion and has a heart, but it fails to tug a little at heartstrings and whilst, essentially, enjoyable, it’s not memorable.

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