Starring Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart, Meg Ryan, Olympia Dukakis
Written By: Jon Kasdan
Directed By: Jon Kasdan
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Jon Kasdan comes from a directing family. His brother Jake has helmed everything from the upcoming Walk Hard to Orange County; additionally, both directed and contributed to episodes of one of the greatest television shows of all time – Freaks and Geeks. Of course, their father is Lawrence Kasdan, director of the Big Chill among others. So with Jon’s directorial debut, he has a lot to live up to.

This particular Kasdan does not necessarily succeed but at the same time does not fail. His film has nice moments coupled with long, languid scenes where not enough happens. Following mostly in the footsteps of Garden State, a critical and commercial success, Kasdan dips into TV land to find the O.C.’s Adam Brody for the starring role of Carter Webb, a disenfranchised young soft-core porn writer. After his girlfriend breaks up with him, he decides to visit and care for his oddball grandmother in Michigan. Thing is, the scenery doesn’t look like Michigan. But we’ll let that pass for now. While at his grandmother’s house, he finds his life being woven into those of the family across the street, the still sexy housewife Sarah (Ryan), and her super-angsty daughter (Stewart).

Unfortunately, the female characters end up being parodies of the desperate housewife and angry teen stereotypes, as much as Kasdan tries otherwise. I’ll blame that on inexperience and a limited ability to write female characters. Where Kasdan – and the film – succeed much more is with Carter, and Brody’s performance. Anyone who saw The O.C. (and okay, I’ll admit I’ve seen more than a few episodes) knows that Brody’s Seth Cohen is the only life in an otherwise clunky and heavy show. In this film, he adds a certain level of sincerity and grace to a relatively boring script.

I give kudos to Kasdan for trying to make a commercially viable film, but he can’t seem to decide whether he wants to make an indie film or a studio film. Too many cliches and obvious musical cues push it towards the latter category, but there are several moments that I found to be much more interesting, namely the ending, which is probably about as good as I could have hoped for a film like this. Another problem is that of genre: it’s not necessarily a romantic comedy – mostly because it isn’t all that funny or heartwarming – and so it sometimes feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. In the end it’s not too far apart from Brody’s TV series, with the same overblown dramatics and plot twists. I’m just glad that Brody is a likable enough actor to make sure this film doesn’t completely drown.

Features:
None

Audio:
Stereo
Dolby Digital 5.1

Video:
2.35:1 Widescreen

Subtitles:
English, French, Spanish

Favorite Scenes:
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 98 minutes
Extras Rating: -1
Overall Rating: