Spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!
You call this anger??? You call this Transformation??? Anger is paying 8 bucks to see a film about the transformative power of anger and sitting for two hours watching Joan Allen give a stupefying performance as a boring, self-indulgent housewife. What an utterly pedestrian take on anger!
First, as far as anger goes, Terry seemed angry in a way only identifiable to a very sheltered WASPy class of people. I did not come away from this film understanding anything more about WASPy anger, or the social pressures of conformity felt by upper class women, or the challenges faced by women sheltered by marriage. What I did understand was that it's apparently quite easy to shock and offend people in Bloomfield simply by being snappish and socially inappropriate. Wow, how outrageous! Oh, that crazy, angry Terry Wolfmeyer! How absurd!
Secondly, the film's fatal mistake was opening *after* the Wolfmeyer's marriage had apparently dissolved and Terry was already angry--or grouchy, as the case may be. Terry's transformation through anger--the entire premise of the film--was left entirely to the pithy narration of the daughter: "My Mom had always been the nicest person, really." Really??? How so??? How did she change??? How was she different by the end of the film??? Give me something to go on!! Narration is not a substitute for plot--it's a weak cop-out. Just tell the audience the story instead of actually developing a script that demonstrates it.
Thirdly, I have to take issue with the way in which Shep--the only really noble, honest character in this film--was shabbily dismissed. Denny, who had hooked up with his friend's wife *a week* after the marriage broke up, physically attacked his friend Shep for making the most ambiguous possible pass at Terry weeks after she and Denny had split. What a hypocritical plot device! Shep was raked over the coals throughout the film for being an older (and unattractive) man who liked young women--Ohhh, how disgusting! How vile! What a bad, bad man! Bad to whom??? Shep was honest about who he was and what motivated him and he didn't care what people thought about him. And, he was the only character in this film who consistently stood up to Terry's whiny, childish behavior. He should have slapped her! She deserved it!
I supposed by the end of the film, the audience was supposed to share Denny's righteous anger--but truthfully, Denny just came off as a possessive, hypocritical lout. I thought liking Kevin Costner's character in a film was too good to be true--and I was right.
Basically, this film seems to have been made exclusively for an audience of highly repressed, self-involved, suburban middle aged women. There was a really annoying *wink and a nod* quality to the dilemmas faced by Terry--something I felt completely alienated by.
The only "Upside" of this film is the fact that it'll make a great contribution to the Lifetime network's menu of pithy, suburban drama. But I'll take real anger, thank you very much.
You call this anger??? You call this Transformation??? Anger is paying 8 bucks to see a film about the transformative power of anger and sitting for two hours watching Joan Allen give a stupefying performance as a boring, self-indulgent housewife. What an utterly pedestrian take on anger!
First, as far as anger goes, Terry seemed angry in a way only identifiable to a very sheltered WASPy class of people. I did not come away from this film understanding anything more about WASPy anger, or the social pressures of conformity felt by upper class women, or the challenges faced by women sheltered by marriage. What I did understand was that it's apparently quite easy to shock and offend people in Bloomfield simply by being snappish and socially inappropriate. Wow, how outrageous! Oh, that crazy, angry Terry Wolfmeyer! How absurd!
Secondly, the film's fatal mistake was opening *after* the Wolfmeyer's marriage had apparently dissolved and Terry was already angry--or grouchy, as the case may be. Terry's transformation through anger--the entire premise of the film--was left entirely to the pithy narration of the daughter: "My Mom had always been the nicest person, really." Really??? How so??? How did she change??? How was she different by the end of the film??? Give me something to go on!! Narration is not a substitute for plot--it's a weak cop-out. Just tell the audience the story instead of actually developing a script that demonstrates it.
Thirdly, I have to take issue with the way in which Shep--the only really noble, honest character in this film--was shabbily dismissed. Denny, who had hooked up with his friend's wife *a week* after the marriage broke up, physically attacked his friend Shep for making the most ambiguous possible pass at Terry weeks after she and Denny had split. What a hypocritical plot device! Shep was raked over the coals throughout the film for being an older (and unattractive) man who liked young women--Ohhh, how disgusting! How vile! What a bad, bad man! Bad to whom??? Shep was honest about who he was and what motivated him and he didn't care what people thought about him. And, he was the only character in this film who consistently stood up to Terry's whiny, childish behavior. He should have slapped her! She deserved it!
I supposed by the end of the film, the audience was supposed to share Denny's righteous anger--but truthfully, Denny just came off as a possessive, hypocritical lout. I thought liking Kevin Costner's character in a film was too good to be true--and I was right.
Basically, this film seems to have been made exclusively for an audience of highly repressed, self-involved, suburban middle aged women. There was a really annoying *wink and a nod* quality to the dilemmas faced by Terry--something I felt completely alienated by.
The only "Upside" of this film is the fact that it'll make a great contribution to the Lifetime network's menu of pithy, suburban drama. But I'll take real anger, thank you very much.