Spoilers throughout post:
Laurel Canyon was Definitely an interesting movie, even fascinating at times, and had a lot to like about it. The performances were everywhere from strong to stirring and nobody really was awful. The theme of the movie, for all of these characters seemed to be can one's brain really control the heart? When yearning collides with common Sense, which one will come out the winner. I found much of Laurel Canyon to be outstanding. Each one is wrestling with something and all of the conflicts seen here are realistic. I was very impressed. That is until the end:IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS, READ NO FURHER.
I have no idea what the people involved in this, were thinking when they chose to end the movie as they did. But for me, it was a very disappointing ending to a really well done and interesting movie. One thing I hate is when a movie ends ambiguously for really no reason at all. This was not the type of movie that needed an ending such as this. To the contrary this movie absolutely NEEDED some resolution. The fact that none was forthcoming takes at least a point, maybe even two off my rating and though a 7 is still a really good rating, this was a movie that until the last few minutes, could have been an easy 8 or maybe even a 9. I liked it. I really did not agree with many who mentioned the characters were not realistic. I thought all of them were.
Bale played Sam in a rather stiff manner. Well, Sam was supposed to be a bit stiff! His whole thing was fear of losing control. I thought Bale did a great job. Likewise, Beckinsale was really good as Alex, she gave this girl a very believable personality as a sheltered, rather innocent girl with a wild side she is totally out of touch with. She delivered a fine performance. At times, though, she looked so beautiful one did wonder how she wasn't modeling for fashion magazines instead of lounging around but hey she is Cate Beckinsale! And Natasha Mcelhone was good as the "other woman" Sara.
But the two who really stick out were Francess Mc.Dormand as Jane and Alessandro Nivola as Ian. Honestly, these two both deserved Oscars, nobody else could have played these roles and painted such a vividly real picture. They were great and the ONLY time the movie lacked believability was when Sam discovered Alex with Ian and Jane toward the end. That scene could have had more emotion to it, because nobody really looked surprised at all.
The movie had a lot of Scenes of sexual tension but didn't show a lot of skin-or at least not as much as one would think from a movie such as this. But it managed to be a heck of a lot more believable in the sexual tension scenarios then many movies that show almost everything.
But the ending still left me cold. I am not the only one judging from many of the comments. It really does bring the movie down, not just a little but a lot and though sometimes these types of ending are necessary to a picture, this wasn't one of them. There has to be REASON for it. It was very Disappointing. The phone call from Sara to Sam was a brilliant direction to head, but absolutely nothing was resolved.
In closing, this was a really good movie with the potential to be excellent. My vote is 7 of 10.
Laurel Canyon was Definitely an interesting movie, even fascinating at times, and had a lot to like about it. The performances were everywhere from strong to stirring and nobody really was awful. The theme of the movie, for all of these characters seemed to be can one's brain really control the heart? When yearning collides with common Sense, which one will come out the winner. I found much of Laurel Canyon to be outstanding. Each one is wrestling with something and all of the conflicts seen here are realistic. I was very impressed. That is until the end:IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS, READ NO FURHER.
I have no idea what the people involved in this, were thinking when they chose to end the movie as they did. But for me, it was a very disappointing ending to a really well done and interesting movie. One thing I hate is when a movie ends ambiguously for really no reason at all. This was not the type of movie that needed an ending such as this. To the contrary this movie absolutely NEEDED some resolution. The fact that none was forthcoming takes at least a point, maybe even two off my rating and though a 7 is still a really good rating, this was a movie that until the last few minutes, could have been an easy 8 or maybe even a 9. I liked it. I really did not agree with many who mentioned the characters were not realistic. I thought all of them were.
Bale played Sam in a rather stiff manner. Well, Sam was supposed to be a bit stiff! His whole thing was fear of losing control. I thought Bale did a great job. Likewise, Beckinsale was really good as Alex, she gave this girl a very believable personality as a sheltered, rather innocent girl with a wild side she is totally out of touch with. She delivered a fine performance. At times, though, she looked so beautiful one did wonder how she wasn't modeling for fashion magazines instead of lounging around but hey she is Cate Beckinsale! And Natasha Mcelhone was good as the "other woman" Sara.
But the two who really stick out were Francess Mc.Dormand as Jane and Alessandro Nivola as Ian. Honestly, these two both deserved Oscars, nobody else could have played these roles and painted such a vividly real picture. They were great and the ONLY time the movie lacked believability was when Sam discovered Alex with Ian and Jane toward the end. That scene could have had more emotion to it, because nobody really looked surprised at all.
The movie had a lot of Scenes of sexual tension but didn't show a lot of skin-or at least not as much as one would think from a movie such as this. But it managed to be a heck of a lot more believable in the sexual tension scenarios then many movies that show almost everything.
But the ending still left me cold. I am not the only one judging from many of the comments. It really does bring the movie down, not just a little but a lot and though sometimes these types of ending are necessary to a picture, this wasn't one of them. There has to be REASON for it. It was very Disappointing. The phone call from Sara to Sam was a brilliant direction to head, but absolutely nothing was resolved.
In closing, this was a really good movie with the potential to be excellent. My vote is 7 of 10.