What a great movie. I went into it knowing very little other than I loved Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson, and he was up for a few awards for this film. From netflix, I kinda understood that he was a guy that falls in love with a sex doll. I watched the preview of the movie after watching the whole thing - I usually do that to see how they'd portray a movie that might be difficult. The preview was cut and spliced to make it seem much lighter than it actually is.

But it's a fantastic read on life, love. And just like those two things, it's really funny, and unexpected in a lot of parts. Sometimes it seemed a little hard to watch in parts, but then it'd pull back and would ring really true.

So many great actors. Ryan again did an incredible job. His brother was played by Paul Schneider, and also was amazing. Very real, very funny. He looks really familiar but I don't recognize anything else he's been on, based on imdb. Patricia Clarkson also did a great job - I couldn't place her, but researching her on imdb, I must've seen 10 things she's done as a character actor.

Me in the weekend viewing thread last week:




Great minds, Bru-say... great minds.


You never saw 'All The Real Girls' with Paul Schneider & Zooey Deschanel? That'd be my first guess as to where you've seen him before (and it was a great flick).

I have not, but I'm adding it to my queue now!

I actually must confess that I have a tough time reading the weekend viewing thread. Usually when I see a movie, I want it to be a complete surprise, with no expectations whatsoever. In a perfect world, I haven't seen the preview, but a friend could call up and tell me to get it. I saw In The Wild like that from the weekend prior.

After I've seen a movie, I can read all the reviews and the dissertations to my heart's content, but not before. It somehow cheapens it for me!!

I'm glad we thought so similarly on this, and can't wait 'til these other yahoos see it!

The thing I enjoyed about this movie is that every aspect of it was down played. The subtleties make it just as rich, layered, and engaging as michelle and bruce have described it. It was funny, but not in an over the top way. It was funny the way life is funny, and similarly it is profoundly thoughtful at times. And the performances were top notch, but with a stellar cast, what else would you expect? Bianca was my favorite character. heh.

I found the same structure present in another film I watched over the weekend, The Savages. I thought that they missed a lot more opportunities for humor when I watched it, but as I've thought it over I think that bright humor would have been very misplaced in the movie. The subject matter isn't really a laughing matter. Unless it is.

edited because I have the speeling skillz of a 5th grader.

I just saw this on Saturday....i thought it was pretty good but the ending kinda felt like one of those "oh man, this screenplay is getting long, lets wrap this up" moments. Without spoiling it, it just seemed a bit...quick, although the movie didn't need to be any longer. But I liked it...definitely a unique movie and Ryan Gosling was great.

I loved it.
I feel so hip and geek-ishly cool... We rented it from i-tunes for 4 dolla.

I like Dan's description... "funny how life is funny". Perfect.
Ryan Gosling's character was so weird and like-able.

Great movie.