I love movies set in 50s America and this looked fabulous.
I had high expectations of this given the (current) 7.9 rating here on IMDB although it's interesting to see that US voters rate it significantly higher than non-US voters although I suspect that's a common trait with very 'American' movies.
Anyway, a great story along with fine acting but for me this is a 'drama' without drama. This movie has a '12A' rating in the UK and I suspect that is part of the problem. The story gives ample scope for people letting rip given the strain that they are under but with 12 year olds in the audience a lot of it is soft-peddled and the movie suffers greatly for that.
Also, to say the direction was 'flat' would be an understatement. I'm sure this looked great on paper but little was done to 'lift' it onto the big screen. Again, maybe the '12A' rating had a lot to do with that but I have to admit that this movie felt like the longest 1 3/4 hours movie I'd ever watched and more like something you'd see that was 'made for TV'.
Still worth a look though for the way it looks at least.
7/10
I had high expectations of this given the (current) 7.9 rating here on IMDB although it's interesting to see that US voters rate it significantly higher than non-US voters although I suspect that's a common trait with very 'American' movies.
Anyway, a great story along with fine acting but for me this is a 'drama' without drama. This movie has a '12A' rating in the UK and I suspect that is part of the problem. The story gives ample scope for people letting rip given the strain that they are under but with 12 year olds in the audience a lot of it is soft-peddled and the movie suffers greatly for that.
Also, to say the direction was 'flat' would be an understatement. I'm sure this looked great on paper but little was done to 'lift' it onto the big screen. Again, maybe the '12A' rating had a lot to do with that but I have to admit that this movie felt like the longest 1 3/4 hours movie I'd ever watched and more like something you'd see that was 'made for TV'.
Still worth a look though for the way it looks at least.
7/10