Good acting, well directed, interesting idea but... the man character is unbelievably despicable so it's hard to root for her and her lies. In fact, I was rooting for the father, but not enough of the film was spent on him.
Amber Anderson (Jennifer) forgot her Canadian accent throughout the movie since both her parents and brothers spoke with a North American accent, but she didn't. It made no sense and never explained.
This could have been a GREAT film, but it needed to be told from the point of her father or her girlfriend as they discover her lies of deceit.
But the biggest blunder of the film was the ending. Really, as many others have pointed out, disappointing. You don't build up a story with so many possible endings that could have worked and then give us this lackluster finale.
Kudos to the actors and the naturalistic approach to filmmaking and storytelling. But the problems simply defeated any positive and took too many steps backwards for me to give it a higher score.
I didn't like the constant music indicating how we should feel about what we are seeing. Also, the editing was a bit off too in several places. Again, the biggest issue is the main character's awful behavior and decisions. Sometimes you can have a character that does a bunch of bad stuff, BUT the way it was approach you don't necessarily hate them, in fact you can even like them. For example, Jerry in Fargo does bad things and his decisions are bad for everyone around him, but you understand his motivations and he is funny to watch. Here I never understood her motivations (money, attention?), which was a big problem why I would be interested in liking her. It's the opposite. I hated her and her scheme. It was never explained, which is a huge problem.
Every story CAN be told, BUT you need to make sure the WAY you tell the story still keeps the audience captivated and don't hate the main character.
It actually played more like a TV more than a theatrical.
4 Stars for the acting, and authenticity.
Amber Anderson (Jennifer) forgot her Canadian accent throughout the movie since both her parents and brothers spoke with a North American accent, but she didn't. It made no sense and never explained.
This could have been a GREAT film, but it needed to be told from the point of her father or her girlfriend as they discover her lies of deceit.
But the biggest blunder of the film was the ending. Really, as many others have pointed out, disappointing. You don't build up a story with so many possible endings that could have worked and then give us this lackluster finale.
Kudos to the actors and the naturalistic approach to filmmaking and storytelling. But the problems simply defeated any positive and took too many steps backwards for me to give it a higher score.
I didn't like the constant music indicating how we should feel about what we are seeing. Also, the editing was a bit off too in several places. Again, the biggest issue is the main character's awful behavior and decisions. Sometimes you can have a character that does a bunch of bad stuff, BUT the way it was approach you don't necessarily hate them, in fact you can even like them. For example, Jerry in Fargo does bad things and his decisions are bad for everyone around him, but you understand his motivations and he is funny to watch. Here I never understood her motivations (money, attention?), which was a big problem why I would be interested in liking her. It's the opposite. I hated her and her scheme. It was never explained, which is a huge problem.
Every story CAN be told, BUT you need to make sure the WAY you tell the story still keeps the audience captivated and don't hate the main character.
It actually played more like a TV more than a theatrical.
4 Stars for the acting, and authenticity.