Ted Morgan (Seann William Scott) is a man on the verge of suicide and decides to head back to his hometown to have one final showdown with everyone he feels has treated him badly over the years. Once he has faced his past demons, Ted is intent on seeing out his 'plans' but a series of events back home make Ted re-evaluate his life situation.
The first thing I'll say here is that it is nice to see Seann William Scott play a likable character. In fairness to him though he is very good when he's playing an obnoxious character, but it's nice to see him do something else (and he also gets to showcase that he is not a one-note actor). The premise and some of the themes that are explored in this film are certainly worthy and the film itself rolls along fairly well and very rarely feels boring. However, as I've mentioned it has many flaws which sadly do drag it down somewhat....
For starters, the filmmakers seemed to bring up several pertinent areas within the film but seem unclear where to take these themes or how to expand upon them. The first example is Ted's brother and his relationship with his wife - in the early stages of the film she wanders into Ted's bedroom and masturbates in front of him - this is initially passed off by his brother as her sleepwalking, but it later transpires that she was awake the whole time. Clearly this aspect of the story was quite amusing (albeit a little repetitive), but it's never really expanded upon or explored further meaning that it seemed to just be done for cheap laughs (rather than being introduced to make any sort of point). Another example comes with the guy who bullied Ted when he was a kid - although this story arc was probably the strongest in the film (we learn why he bullied Ted and the bully acknowledges his past mistakes), but this aspect is almost single-handedly ruined by the silly direction that this thread takes - him wanting to kill his dad was a little unnecessary and gave it a goofy 'Throw Momma from the Train' feel to it which I felt wasn't really needed. For me, enough had been done to make the point without adding this subplot. I also can't say I was that impressed with the ending - giving the film a cheesy 'audience friendly' ending without properly addressing certain issues may work for some people, but I would have preferred it if the themes were expanded upon and consequences of wrongdoings were at least discussed or commented upon (such as the kids that bully Romeo for being gay).
I've given this film a bit of stick but it isn't all bad (the performances are good) and the themes explored here are generally themes that many people will be able to identify with. But for me, it's wavering, uneven tone and the approach to the material didn't always strike the right chord with me making it merely a 'semi-satisfying' social awareness film.
The first thing I'll say here is that it is nice to see Seann William Scott play a likable character. In fairness to him though he is very good when he's playing an obnoxious character, but it's nice to see him do something else (and he also gets to showcase that he is not a one-note actor). The premise and some of the themes that are explored in this film are certainly worthy and the film itself rolls along fairly well and very rarely feels boring. However, as I've mentioned it has many flaws which sadly do drag it down somewhat....
For starters, the filmmakers seemed to bring up several pertinent areas within the film but seem unclear where to take these themes or how to expand upon them. The first example is Ted's brother and his relationship with his wife - in the early stages of the film she wanders into Ted's bedroom and masturbates in front of him - this is initially passed off by his brother as her sleepwalking, but it later transpires that she was awake the whole time. Clearly this aspect of the story was quite amusing (albeit a little repetitive), but it's never really expanded upon or explored further meaning that it seemed to just be done for cheap laughs (rather than being introduced to make any sort of point). Another example comes with the guy who bullied Ted when he was a kid - although this story arc was probably the strongest in the film (we learn why he bullied Ted and the bully acknowledges his past mistakes), but this aspect is almost single-handedly ruined by the silly direction that this thread takes - him wanting to kill his dad was a little unnecessary and gave it a goofy 'Throw Momma from the Train' feel to it which I felt wasn't really needed. For me, enough had been done to make the point without adding this subplot. I also can't say I was that impressed with the ending - giving the film a cheesy 'audience friendly' ending without properly addressing certain issues may work for some people, but I would have preferred it if the themes were expanded upon and consequences of wrongdoings were at least discussed or commented upon (such as the kids that bully Romeo for being gay).
I've given this film a bit of stick but it isn't all bad (the performances are good) and the themes explored here are generally themes that many people will be able to identify with. But for me, it's wavering, uneven tone and the approach to the material didn't always strike the right chord with me making it merely a 'semi-satisfying' social awareness film.