Carter Webb (Adam Brody) is a softcore porn writer. His famous girlfriend dumps him. He takes a break and goes to Detroit to check on his grandmother (Olympia Dukakis). He befriends the women next door. The mom (Meg Ryan) is suffering from cancer and a cheating husband. The daughter Lucy (Kristen Stewart) is angry at her mom for everything.
Young Jon Kasdan is trying to inject poignancy and charm into this manufactured premise. Do people actually write porn? It sounds like a made up thing that LA writers create. And the whole relationship with mother and daughter sounds like another porn plot. Is that the connection? All the dialog have this fake idealism.
The thing is I love Meg Ryan's performance when she's with Adam Brody. Kristen Stewart is once again her grumpy profound teen. She rambles through all that emo dialog. The dialog can really go from wonky childishness to fresh insightfulness.
Young Jon Kasdan is trying to inject poignancy and charm into this manufactured premise. Do people actually write porn? It sounds like a made up thing that LA writers create. And the whole relationship with mother and daughter sounds like another porn plot. Is that the connection? All the dialog have this fake idealism.
The thing is I love Meg Ryan's performance when she's with Adam Brody. Kristen Stewart is once again her grumpy profound teen. She rambles through all that emo dialog. The dialog can really go from wonky childishness to fresh insightfulness.