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From:Adam Brody , Kristen Stewart , Meg Ryan , Warner Brothers , WARNER HOME VIDEO ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#7429 |
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 Olympia Dukakis Commits Acting Crime, Gets Stripped of her Oscar, 2008-11-07
I remember Kristen Stewart in PANIC ROOM when she was a good looking little boy, or so I thought, but baby look at her now! If she is going to be tne one playing Bella in the movie of TWILIGHT, then it is bound to be a winner. Here she plays the sullen, rebellious, teenage daughter of Meg Ryan in a midwestern suburb that's been manicured to within an inch of its life. Her boyfriend is the chief jock in the high school and she hangs out with a trendy, Vogue-reading pack of gossip girls. And yet for some reason she's not happy--well, if she was, there wouldn't be a movie. To Lucy, Carter Webb the visitor from far off Los Angeles, is her entree into a more intriguing world of exile and possibility. He's creative--a writer--and he still acts like he's in high school, which is reassuring.
He has a comically sad relationship to his aging grandmother (Olympia Dukakis, flaming the screen with shreds of ham), which is just as winsome as Lucy's own relationship with her mother, the aforementioned Meg Ryan, going out of her way to act as if she really had cancer.
The two houses across the street from each other form a dichotomy which the younger characters resent, always spilling out of domestic life and meeting in the middle of the street--I kept waiting for one of them to get run over by Kristen Stewart's car-crazy pack of jock friends.
Adam Brody just wasn't right for this movie, and if it fails, it's because of two things, he's the same as Seth Cohen only without any snappy dialogue, and b, the whole script is written in a way that makes you think the producers are purposely avoiding letting Carter have sex with either mother or daughter.
He's supposed to write soft core porn for HBO or whatever, but as the film makes it clear, he is as ignorant about sex as he is about everything else. I guess he's okay, though how convenient that he gets to meet Ms. Right in the last sixty seconds of the movie. Whoops, that's a spoiler right there but now I've got you curious and otherwise there's not much to look forward to once Olympia Dukakis totters in and destroys the picture.
 In the Land of Women DVD, 2008-08-10
You KNOW this is a comedy from the title -- and it delivers big time. The FINE seller gave me great service, too, and rates AAA+++++.
 It really is good for what it is!, 2008-07-01
This movie has no pretentions towards Oscar or any other awards. However, the story is entertaining; the directorial timing is impecable; the plot introduces multiple topics which are largely common, but doesn't dwell on any subject beyond endurance; beautifully filmed; no digression into sexual situations; no sexual overtones of a younger man interested in either an older woman or a teenager; absolutely accurate gestures by the teenage girl; great presence by Adam Brody; etc.
The film is watchable over and over again as pure entertainment. Don't look for what you don't find. Life is at least complicated in the multiple vignettes we experience - some our own and others viewed from afar.
Predictable Comedy/Drama, Great Meg Ryan Performance..., 2008-06-30
With all the hype I've heard about Jon Kasdan's directorial debut, "In the Land of Women", I expected something far more than a 'by-the-numbers' tale of love lost, and healing, with stereotyped characters and a predictable plot; but two performances are so remarkable that they lift the film far above ordinary...Olympia Dukakis, as lead Adam Brody's death-fixated grandmother, takes a one-note character and gives it a comic spin that makes it irresistible; and most especially Meg Ryan, as a wise, funny mom dealing with the discovery of breast cancer.
Ryan is at that awkward, transitional phase in her career, over 40, with her patent sweet, perky roles now going to Reese Witherspoon and Kate Hudson, a period when she must redefine herself to survive as an actress. With "In the Land of Women", she reveals a depth, an assurance, that is a joy to watch. Dealing with her older daughter's rebelliousness, and husband's infidelity, the discovery of a lump on her breast could easily been an excuse for 'over-the-top' histrionics, but she never loses her character's distinctiveness. In her awkward bonding with the younger Brody, yet motherly reaction to her daughter's attraction to him, while cancer treatment robs her hair and health, Ryan never hits a wrong note. This is an Oscar-worthy performance, that SHOULD have been recognized!
So forget the hype, and savor this film for it's true merits...and enjoy Meg Ryan's triumphal emergence as a character actress!
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
Pleasantly surprised, 2008-05-05
Well I really didn't know what to expect with this movie when I picked it off of the shelf at Blockbuster. But surprise...this movie was actually pretty good! It wasn't your typical chick flick romantic comedy. It was a refreshing and smartly funny story about a guy trying to escape but actually finds himself by moving in with his slightly crazy grandma who just happens to live across from a hot mom and daughter duo. Romance is insinuated in different scenes with both the mom and daughter, but that's not quite the point of the movie. Overall, I enjoyed the film and didn't want it to end!
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