Review: Frances Ha (2012)

It’s a fun time, when an obsession hits me. Every now and again an intense feeling hits me over a particular actor or actress, and I feel the need the spend the following weeks consuming their entire filmography. What follows is normally hours of watching sub-par rom coms and dramas that make no sense to me, but every now and again I come across a real gem, a movie that makes me forget why I watched it in the first place. That happened to me the other night with Frances Ha (2012).

It’s an indie movie following a girl living in New York called Frances (Greta Gerwig). She lives in an apartment with her best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner) and the two are closer than sisters, and life seems great, but Frances ends up separating from her boyfriend when he asks her to move in with him, and Frances is reluctant to leave Sophie on her own. What makes things worse is not long after, Sophie moves out to live with her boyfriend, and that’s where things really go downhill.

After she is forced to move out, Frances moves into a lush apartment inhabited by rich boys Lev (Adam Driver), who brings home a different girl every night, and Dan (Michael Esper), who she has a playful friendship with, with Dan picking up on all the quirky things she does and labels ‘undateable’, but with affection. It reminded me of when I was younger, and that’s how I envisaged my life panning out, living in a huge apartment with my friends. I mean, that’s not even a thing here in the UK, but regardless, the movie shows the downsides to this, too.

To be completely honest, it took weeks to eventually see this. I even considered not watching it at all, and for a silly reason to. It’s all black and white! An odd choice for a modern movie but I read that director Baumbach did it to instill a feeling of nostalgia. Being the same age as Frances, I can’t see it that way, but what I did find that without colour, I was fully focused on everything that the characters were doing and saying, and it held my attention more than most movies do now. Weird! I clearly have a much shorter attention span than I thought I did.

Frances goes through a lot in this movie, but essentially, it’s about break-up and change. Not a break-up in the traditional sense either, but a best-friendship break-up. It’s quite heartbreaking to watch, and although I couldn’t relate at every moment, I could definitely see parts of myself in Frances. Especially in the scene around the dinner table. I honestly feel so lost in group conversations sometimes.

I haven’t mentioned the soundtrack yet, either! It’s not something I normally even pick up on, but some of the songs in this had me dancing in my seat with a smile on my face. And finally, it isn’t until the very final scene that we learn why the movie is called Frances Ha. It’s such a minor thing, but it’s a detail I really appreciated.

After watching, I’d decided to give this an 8/10, but now I’ve written this review, I feel like I enjoyed it more than that...I don’t know. This is a placeholder score for now!

Review: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

When I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel last year, I had to admit it was the first Wes Anderson movie I’d seen. I remember a good few of our blogging buddies recommending Moonrise Kingdom to me, and I’m just sorry it’s taken me quite this long to give it a go! After exposing myself to more action moves than I could handle, I was ready for something quieter, and this was the perfect choice.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) is a beautiful story of young love. Sam (Jared Gilman) is a member of the Khaki Scouts, extremely skilled but liked by no one. He lost both of his parents and currently lives with foster parents, who he has difficulty with. Suzy (Cara Hayward) is a troubled young girl whose parents don’t know how to deal with her. Together, they decide to run away, which sparks a huge search party to look for them.

I now understand the skill that others have in spotting Wes Anderson’s work so quickly. The colourful characters, camera shots, fancy title opening, even the colour yellow, after watching just two of his movies these things are already standing out to me. It’s really quite fascinating. That said, I loved The Grand Budapest so much that I had really high hopes for Moonrise Kingdom, and I wasn’t let down.

We can all sympathise with Sam and Suzy. When you’re 12 years old, it’s easy to fall in love with someone, and feel like the whole world is against you. In fact, he won’t thank me for this, but when one of my brothers was younger than Sam, he proposed to his girlfriend on the school playground, and they vowed to get married when they were old enough. It didn’t happen, but they remained very good friends!

Moonrise Kingdom had a great mix of a being a heartwarming, relatable story, but with just enough exaggeration to make it exciting, like Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) leaping an impossible distance, and Sam surviving being struck by lightning. It’s like how we all tell our own stories, making certain moments more heroic or dramatic to make them more interesting.

The star studded cast just added another element to the movie. Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) is a compassionate man who just wants the best for Sam, despite barely knowing him. Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) provides most of the comedy as the bumbling leader who can’t control his scouts. Mr Bishop (Bill Murray) is the classic grumpy Dad who argues with authority. Mrs Bishop (Frances McDormand) is the perfect worrying, struggling mother, and last but not least, the Social Services lady (Tilda Swinton) is cold and heartless. Just a great cast all round!

I’m so glad I finally watched Moonrise Kingdom, and now I’m on the lookout for my next Wes Anderson movie. Can anyone recommend one for me?

Thursday Movie Picks: The Internet

It's Thursday! Time for It's Thursday! Time for Movie Picks. If you're new to this, Thursday Movie Picks is a fantastic series hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, where each week she picks a theme and we all choose 3 movies that we feel fit. This week's theme is The Internet.

I’m currently struggling to keep a straight face whilst writing this post, as whenever I type out ‘The Internet’ I’m just reminded about the time in The IT Crowd when Roy and Moss convince Jen that their router (was it a router?) is in fact...The Internet. 

Anyway, jokes aside, the internet is a weird and wonderful place, so it’s no wonder really that there’s a whole bunch of movies about it. I’m going with a bit of a theme within the theme this week, as my 3 choices focus on the darker, more sinister part of the internet. Hey, it’s not all sweetness and light here at Flick Chicks!

Perhaps you’ve heard of Julian Assange. If you haven’t, you must have heard of the whistleblowing online platform he created with his colleague Daniel Berg, WikiLeaks. The Fifth Estate (2013) follows the events of these colleagues, played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl as they find themselves at loggerheads when the platform really takes off. It’s not the most interesting thriller out there, but when I first watched it I knew very little about Julian Assange, so it was more of a fun, educational experience for me.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I posted a review of Disconnect (2012) on here. It’s a fantastic movie, and tells multiple stories exploring the dangers of the internet, such as a bunch of school children ‘cat-fishing’ another student which goes terribly wrong, a young video chat-room stripper who lands into trouble when he agrees to tell his story to a reporter, and a grieving couple who have their identities stolen online. I’d have happily watched feature length movies of each of these stories. It’s a must-watch.

I want to say that the title of Ask Me Anything (2014) came from the infamous features on Reddit which go by the same name, or ‘AMAs’, but maybe that’s because I’ve been spending too much time there lately. Anyway, in this, Katie takes a year off before college to ‘find herself’, which leads to her creating a blog to detail her life, but mostly her sexual activities. Amongst all this, she finds herself involved with more than one man at a time. It’s an interesting watch, but takes a sharp turn at the end which leaves you confused.

Review: Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

What would you do if you read this ad in your local paper? “WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid when we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed.” I like to think I’d get in touch, for sure.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) is a ‘Dramedy’ based on this classified advert that a man named Kenneth (Mark Duplass) has written. At a magazine publishing company, Jeff (Jake Johnson) proposes to investigate the author of the advert to chase an amusing article for the magazine. One of the interns, Darius (Aubrey Plaza) volunteers to join him, and a second intern, Arnau (Karan Soni) gets dragged along too. The three of them set out on a road trip to a coastal town to research the story.

It is very quickly evident that Jeff actually has a more important reason for taking the job on. It just so happens that his old high school crush Liz (Jenica Bergere) lives in this coastal town, and so he leaves both Darius and Arnau to do the work whilst he gets in contact with Liz to try and rekindle their romance. When that plan fails, Jeff takes Arnau out to make sure he doesn’t waste his youth. I enjoyed their side of the story, but it is secondary compared to that of Darius and Kenneth.

Darius succeeds where Jeff failed in gaining Kenneth’s trust thanks to her aloof yet tenacious attitude. Aubrey Plaza gets to play the sarcastic character she does so well but with a much more serious overtone this time around, which she nailed. She is one talented and awesome lady! I wasn’t expecting the story to take the romantic turn that it did, but it was fascinating to watch Darius and Jeff’s relationship grow.

What I loved most was the question you find yourself asking throughout the entire movie. Can Kenneth really travel back in time? There are no clues (that I noticed) that give any indication either way, but you are definitely left questioning Kenneth’s sanity more than once.

I won’t spoil anything for you, but the ending of Safety Not Guaranteed really got me thinking! At first I was a little disappointed, but the more I questioned it, the more I realised there just wasn’t a better ending. It was actually brilliant!

Highly recommended if you enjoy quirky little movies!

Review: Disconnect (2012)

One of my favourite things about co-running a movie blog is that family and friends tend to talk to me more about movies they’ve seen or ask me for recommendations. You’ll see quite a few movies I’ve reviewed that have been suggestions from my Grampy, but this one comes, funnily enough, from my boss! He’s not a movie buff at all but watches whatever movie Channel 5 or Film4 put on each Sunday night, and tells me about them on Monday morning in the office.

The latest one he recommended to me was Disconnect (2012). I’d never heard of it before but it starred one of my favourite actors, Jason Bateman, and with a topic so close to my heart I knew I was going to have to hunt this movie down as quickly as possible.

Disconnect weaves 3 separate stories all with one connecting theme. The internet is a dangerous place. Kyle (Max Thieriot) is a chat-room stripper who winds up in a heap of trouble when Nina (Andrea Riseborough), a reporter, pays to chat with him as part of a story and the FBI get involved. Two school boys, Jason (Colin Ford) and Frye (Aviad Bernstein) play a prank on another boy in their school, Ben (Jonah Bobo) by creating a fake Facebook account under the name Jessica. Their prank goes too far and Ben’s father Rich (Jason Bateman) investigates. Then we have Cindy (Paula Patton) and Derek (Alexander Skarsgard), a couple with marriage issues after the loss of their child, who become victims of identity theft.

It’s actually one of the scariest movies I’ve seen, but not for the generic reasons. There are no jump scares or murderers here, this is a drama, not a horror. But the fact is, this is real life. There’s no need for a warning of “these events are based on a real life story” because this happens every day in the real world.

I can’t confess to knowing anything about chat-room strippers, but we all know there’s a dark part of the internet out there. Again, I’ve thankfully never been a victim of identity theft, but my fiance had his Playstation account hacked and funds withdrawn from his bank account. That was scary enough! On a much smaller scale, and I’m not ashamed to admit it, I fell victim to the cruel school prank. Some kids wrote me a love letter from a boy I fancied and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. Social Media wasn’t a thing back then so it ended fairly quickly, but in this day and age, cyberbullying is a huge issue.  Aww what horrid kids! Give me their names, I'll sort them out! It's okay, I'm over it, I swear...*sob*

My only complaint about Disconnect would be that I was so fascinated by each of the three stories, I’d like them to be movies of their own. There’s just not enough time to connect with the characters enough in this format.

I think Disconnect is a must watch for anyone who uses the internet on a daily basis, especially parents who didn’t grow up in such a connected world.

Mini Reviews: Identity (2003), The Bourne Legacy (2012) & The Last Witch Hunter (2015)

I do love a good mystery/thriller! It’s hard to hunt this kind of movie down because once you know there’s a big twist, you find yourself trying to work it out, so when a work colleague mentioned Identity (2003) and said it ‘was a bit of a weird one’ I yelled for them to say no more and watched it that very night. It’s a brilliant movie about a bunch of strangers who all find themselves trapped at a motel, which is creepy enough until one by one they all get murdered.

It was an entertaining watch, and I didn’t see the twist coming, but my real complaint is that the twist came too early, and the actual ending itself was pretty unnecessary. Still, a good movie and I’d recommend it to other fans of the genre.

It took me far too long to watch the original Bourne trilogy, and with the latest movie on the horizon, I thought it was about time I watched The Bourne Legacy (2012). Plus, it’s got Oscar Isaac, so that was a selling point. (Spoiler Alert - That was a bit of a Cabin in the Woods moment for me, doh). I think my fiance enjoyed this more than I did, but it was an entertaining watch on a rainy weekend evening, with some great action scenes that had me on the edge of my seat and a little twist I wasn’t expecting either.

If nothing else, it’s got me really excited for Jason Bourne later this year!

It’s family movie night. We’d been planning for the last 2 weeks to watch Everest together. At the last minute, my Grampy decides Everest looked boring (argh!) and suggests we watch The Last Witch Hunter (2015) instead. Well….I do always say that I’ll watch any movie once. I didn’t even realise it was actually set in the present day, which cheered me up a little. It’s the kind of fantasy movie my 14 year old self would have loved, obsessed over actually, but now, it just wasn’t enough. It was entertaining at the time, but 3 weeks later I can barely remember it.

Which made me feel like a total snob when the credits rolled and my family gushed about how amazing it was. Well, they are the same family who hail San Andreas one of the greatest disaster movies! Sorry…

Review: Compliance (2012)

I’ve been getting quite a few movie recommendations from my Grampy recently. He’s a bigger movie fan than I am (perhaps we should get him to guest post) and he’s much harsher with his judgements too! Hi Grampy, if you’re reading! At the Sunday dinner table he told me about a dark themed movie set in a fast food restaurant, and after pondering it for a while, he told me it was called Coercion, and that the little I knew about it, the better.

Fab. That went straight on the must watch list, so I hunted it down the other day. Only my search for Coercion only found me an unreleased terrorist movie coming out next year, and two shorts, one a crime and the other sci-fi. Nothing mentioning a fast food restaurant! A more thorough search led me to find a post titled ‘Compliance (2012), This Year’s Most Controversial Film’. Plus, a mention of fast food! Huzzah! No thanks there Grampy!

So, here’s what I can tell you about Compliance. On a Friday night, the busiest night of the week for this restaurant, the manager gets a call from the police informing her that one of her employees has stolen cash from a customer’s purse, and the manager is required to interrogate and search her in a bid to find the stolen money.

Honestly, that’s all you need to know. There’s no great plot twist here, and it’s based on a true life story anyway, but an IMDB search will tell you more than I have, so take caution. All I would warn you is this. This film is dark. It’s not a comfortable watch at all, but from a psychological point of view, it’s really quite amazing what lengths people will go to when being told to comply by an authoritative figure.

As it’s such a low budget movie, there are no Hollywood faces here, in fact every face was new to me other than Becky’s (Dreama Walker, who I know from Gossip Girl), but I thought the cast did a fantastic job with such difficult material. I’ve never seen a movie quite like it before, and even now I still can’t believe that everything really happened out here in the real world. (Edit: Scrap that, I've just read through the rest of the cast's Filmography, I take it all back!)

Who can you trust?!

Thursday Movie Picks: Movies about Music/Making Music/Musicians

I rarely seem to contribute to Thursday Movie Picks, which is strange because I love it and everytime I see everyone's posts I think 'damn it I had a great idea for that...humph!'  Anyway, enough about me.....

Thursday Movie Picks is a great series hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, where each week she picks a theme and we all choose 3 movies that we feel fit. This week’s theme is movies about music/making music/musicians (no biopics allowed).

I was so excited when I saw the theme for this week, here are my picks:

Begin Again (2013)

A chance encounter between Gretta (Keira Knightley) a young musician just arrived in New York and Dan (Mark Ruffalo) a disgraced music executive, leads them to collaborating on a musical journey creating and reviving their careers.  I love this film, because it's so different to any other music based movie I have seen and the music was great....plus Adam Levine! *Swoon*

Pitch Perfect (2012)

Beca (Anna Kendrick) is a newbie at Bardon University and is encouraged (while naked) to join the Bardon Bellas the college's female a capella singing group.  Beca's presence provides the Bellas with a much needed shake up and helps them face off against the local boys group, The Trebles.  This was mine and Allie's very first review, way back when (check it out here) and we both loved it.  Its ridiculously hilarious, no matter how many time I watch it I laugh out loud and the music has me tapping my feet and singing along every time. (and I still blast 'Cups' in my car!!)

Whiplash (2014)

Andrew (Miles Teller) is desperate to be the World's best jazz drummer and gets into a prestigious music conservatory only to be pushed to his limits by the iron fist of Fletcher (J K Simmons).  I was amazed after watching this film as not a huge amount happens in the story, but I was completely and utterly engaged the whole time, I didn't take my eyes off the screen once.

Thursday Movie Picks: Secret Agents and Spies

Oh Thursday Movie Picks, how I’ve missed you! I shied away from the whole of October due to being a wimp for horrors, but I’m back now! 

Anyway, if you’re new to this, Thursday Movie Picks is a fantastic series hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, where each week she picks a theme and we all choose 3 movies that we feel fit. This week’s theme is Secret Agents and Spies.

2015 has been a great year for the topic actually, with the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Spectre, so I’m loving this week! Here are my picks:

Kicking off with something a little silly here, but you can’t deny that Penguins of Madagascar (2014) is a great fit this week. Those 4 loveable penguins are great secret agents themselves, but now that they have a movie of their own, they get to team up with another secret organisation, North Wind, led by a wolf whose name is Classified. Or it’s secret. I’m not sure! Together, they take down the evil Dr Octavius Brine, or, Dave, as he attempts to take over the world. So much more fun than I expected it to be!

One of my ultimate guilty pleasures, my go-to ‘I’m not feeling well’ movie is This Means War (2012). Chris Pine and Tom Hardy play CIA Agents who wind up realising they are both pursuing the same girl. Putting bros before hoes, they agree to let her decide which of them she would rather be with, but that doesn’t stop either of them using their secret agent skills to spy on each other, and ultimately, sabotage each other's’ dates.

Without a doubt, my favourite spy character is Austin Powers (International Man of Mystery, The Spy Who Shagged Me & Goldmember), played by Mike Myers. The first movie was one of the first grown-up comedies I ever watched, and I remember my Dad getting into trouble for letting me watch it when I was 11. Anyone only needs to utter the words ‘number one’ for my Dad and I to respond with ‘Hello Number One, I’m Number Two’! 

Mini Reviews: Hello I Must be Going (2012), Thanks for Sharing (2012), Smashed (2012)

I appear to have recently found some hidden gems on Netflix recently instead of the usual ABC Family/Made for TV tripe that I usually succumb to.  Rather than a lengthy review for each, I decided to add these to the mini review series.

Hello I Must Be Going (2012)

Young divorcee Amy has to move back in with her parents and manage her heartbreak and depression, until a younger guy give her hope and passion for the future.  I always liked Melanie Lynskey in Two and a half men so I liked the idea of this from the get-go.  She was brilliant as expected, highlighting the pitfalls of being divorced and back at home with humour and sharp dialogue.  Blythe Tanner is great as the disapproving mother who is at her wits end with her daughter and is determined to make her move on.  

Brilliantly witty and a real insight into the 'horrors' of middle aged divorce and having to seek solace in your parents home.

Thanks for Sharing (2012)

Three stories of sex addicts weaved together to produce a movie that highlights the harsh reality of recovery from sex addiction.  Adam (Mark Ruffalo) is a 5 years 'sober' and hiding his past from his new girlfriend, his sponsor Mike (Tim Robbins) dealing with the aftermath 15 years from recovery and Neil (Josh Gad) who is in meetings because he has been court ordered to.  This has the opportunity to be really clever and approach the subject with a dark humour but instead it all seems to play out a a bit cheesy.  The acting is great throughout but I think there were much more that could have been done with this somewhat taboo topic than what was.

Entertaining enough but didn't have the depth that I was hoping for when I read the synopsis.

Smashed (2012)

A couple who's marriage is built on a love of alcohol and music start to crumble when Kate decides she needs to get sober.  This is quite a sad film to watch because Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Charlie (Aaron Paul) obviously love each other but tend to be a bad influence on each other.  Always harder to leave someone for reasons other than falling out of love, and harder to watch.  Winstead and Paul both put in great performances as the couple who don't seem to understand each other anymore and find it hard to be around each other in their respective states. I personally would have preferred a more solid ending but these decide for yourself endings seem to be all the rage at the minute!

Heartbreaking to watch but well written and another dent in my attempt to watch all of Aaron Paul's work.

Review: Premium Rush (2012)

I tried really hard to watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy last night. Maybe I was just too tired, or maybe it's not the film for me, but I had to turn it off after ten minutes. Instead, I put on Premium Rush, a film I've been meaning to watch for a while. It kept popping up on IMDB as a film recommend to me, so I thought, 'why not!'.  I've tried to watch this film twice and fallen asleep both times, maybe I need to try one more time.  Third times a charm! Ok I tried again and got 30 minutes in before I fell asleep - I give up as much as I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this is just not a film for me :(

Wilee (Jospeh Gordon-Levitt) works as a bike courier in New York City, and he's also a complete mad-man, riding around on a bike with no breaks. I didn't believe bike couriers were even a real thing until I looked it up! Anyway, one afternoon, Wilee ends up picking up an envelope which is also being hunted down by a dirty NYPD cop who will stop at nothing to get his hands on it.

As a car driver myself, I have a natural aversion to cyclists anyway. Birmingham might not be New York, but it's still a nightmare to drive around in rush hour, and cyclists are such a nuisance! I thought Premium Rush might change my view and actually sympathise with the dangerous journeys cyclists have each time, but Wilee and his colleagues are so reckless that it just fuelled my aggression!

Serves you right, Wilee...

It terms of the film itself, I actually really enjoyed it. Wilee had some great witty lines, and there's one particular cop trying to catch him for his dangerous cycling that had me laughing out loud. He just can't catch a break and you can't help but feel sorry for him. The actual storyline surrounding the letter doesn't make much sense if I'm honest, but the chase scenes and humour make up for it.

One particular thing I liked about Premium Rush was some of the effects. When Wilee approaches junctions and crossings, time slows down as his mind processes which route he should take. You also get some pretty cool clips of the routes that the cyclists have to take. I can't find a great clip to emphasise this but here's a goof example of the chase scenes:

Although it had its flaws, Premium Rush is something a little different and it was fun to watch. Plus, come on ladies, who wouldn't want to watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt on a bike for an hour and a half?

Jenna, I now realise that you are the exception to that!

Review: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

I wanted to see this at the cinema but unfortunately, I missed it.  Luckily, it's now on Sky Movies and although it was enjoyable, I'm ultimately glad I didn't buy the DVD straight off.

Funnily enough I started watching this nearly a year ago and had a power cut (weird!) half way through, and it was only Jenna's review that reminded me I never watched the rest!

Three weeks before an asteroid is due to hit Earth and kill all of humanity.  Dodge meets Penny and they embark on a a road trip to find her family and his long lost love before its too late.  Their journey teaches them a lot about themselves, but is also pretty funny in places.  (The Friendsy's scene had me laughing my head off!)

This is seeing the end of the world from the other side of the coin, there are no rescue missions, no chance of survival, no one even trying to run just two characters and their response to the end of everything.  It is the ultimate 'What would you do?' movie.  Steve Carell's lonely and lost Dodge is painfully believable and heartbreaking to watch.  He has nothing to 'do' at the end of the world, he just carries on with his life as normal, going to work everyday.  It's only when he meets Penny that he is willing to try to do something daring and different in the countdown to his death.  

This is actually a terrifying movie, not in a horror movie kind of way obviously, but it makes you think about what you would do if you had 3 weeks to live and would you be alone.  Is that not the scariest idea ever? Spending the rest of your life completely alone!  

I couldn't understand what this film was trying to be. Is it an end of the world comedy like Zombieland? Or is it just a heartbreaking, no hope film? For me, the characters weren't interesting enough for me to feel sorry for them, and there wasn't enough comic relief to make it a comedy. 

There were a few moments that just didn't make much sense, like when Dodge and Penny visited Speck in his fully stocked titanium bunker. They asked to borrow 'one from the fleet' and from the walls of weaponry, stocks of red bull and displays of games consoles, I expected to see a row of BMWs or huge 4X4s. Instead was a set of Smart cars in every colour possible. What? I'm going to guess that was meant to be funny? I just didn't get it!

Thank god for Penny, played by Keira Knightley, who gives Dodge the kick up the arse he needs to take a chance on his first love, what has he got to lose.  The development of their friendship is lovely to watch and the actors actually have great chemistry (which I wouldn't have thought before I this) but for me the ending (there will be no spoilers here!) ruined the whole film for me.  It suddenly became much less believable, which up until that point had not been an issue and that spoilt it a little for me.

I didn't have a problem with the ending to be honest, I thought that was the only way it could really end. However I'm a real fan of Steve Carell and Keira Knightley and they both disappointed me in this. I don't think it was their acting, perhaps the writing and the direction instead, but not even they could save it for me.

Don't let my opinion of the ending put you off this as you may love it, the rest of the film is entertaining to watch, albeit a little depressing.

Sorry for sounding like a negative Nelly but I just didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped I would!