| Overall Grade: |
C+ |
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| Story: |
B- |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B- |
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|
| Visuals: |
C+ |
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Typical effort
by Frapples (movies profile)
Apr 11, 2008
9
of
9 people found this review helpful
Overall, I found this movie to be fairly enjoyable. I really enjoyed Julia Stiles performance and how she seemed to transition during the movie into someone taking over her grandmother's place at the head of the family since her father clearly was not the person to do this. The theme of the best friend/secret love was a little tired and transparent here but I did like the part when he professes his love for her and she "doesn't know what to say" and he replies, "you just said it". But of course our man will swallow his pride and overcome this intitial setback.
Shirley MacLaine--I swear she has to be typecast more as the crotchety old mother/grandmother figure more than Arnold is an action hero. She plays this EXACT same character in this movie as Bewitched, Rumor Has It, Guarding Tess, Steel Magnolias, and Terms of Endearment. The only movie she has recently done to not follow this is In Her Shoes. All that said, I enjoyed her performance here. She just says what she wants and gets away with it. Randy Quaid seemed like the same character from Vacation series.
I would recommend this movie to those who enjoy a family roles coming of age type experience. |
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