(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

 You know, this is based purely on what the previews indicate is the plot of Definitely, Maybe, but who on Earth decided that the right way to do a father/daughter bonding movie is for him to tell her how he spent his college years fooling around with and juggling three women, one of whom is her mother, who does not appear to be in the picture in the present day?

Comments

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

That's not what happens (not that it's a great movie, but it isn't like that, either). The parents are divorcing, and the daughter is trying to get her dad to tell her about when he met her mother so that she can make him remember when the two of them were head over heels for each other (the typical kid trying to reunite the parents).

He instead tells the story of his three serious girlfriends (not three girls whom he was dating all at the same time -- this is not a story about her *conception* a la Mamma Mia or anything) and challenges her to guess which one is her mother.

The actors were all better than the material, but it was entertaining. I enjoyed it and got into it even while seeing that it was flawed.

The best part of it was Isla Fisher's performance as one of the three serious girlfriends.

But even when I'd only seen the previews, I didn't interpret things the way you did. I kind of figured it for what it turned out to be.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

That's very good to know, actually. The way the previews I've seen are set up, they make it look like he's seeing all three girls at once, and I just kept going "WTF??" because it came across as "guess which of these girls I'm three timing I ended up with."

*sees edit*

Well, part of my interpretation is probably because that's the kind of movie The Boys like (guy has women all over the place and gets to pick adn doesn't get in trouble for fooling around with a few of them) and I've seen (and attempted to block) enough of them.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

My take was totally yours. And it still doesn't sound any better.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It's the flipflopping between them and no mention of serial girlfriends.

And, really, both our take and the real plot come across as a guy wanting his daughter to know he was a stud in college.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Sigh.

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but movies like that tend to have very disposable actresses in them -- this had four recognizable names as the female leads and had a good pedigree (from my POV) for who made the film.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Really, that's probably the only reason I noticed it. It looked to have actual, good performers. Though my main thought in that was "was this just a case where a good crop of people weren't getting offers? And why are they not getting offers when far inferior people are?"

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

Uhm, okay. No, it wasn't. He was kind of doing the opposite -- a guy bragging about his THREE girlfriends? Ooo, what a stud.

It had a neat seeing history through the eyes of someone who skipped along the sidelines aspect to it. He worked on campaigns in New York and we follow him through post-college idealism to disillusionment to figuring out what he really cares about. The relationship between him and his daughter is really well-done, and he comes across as a good guy who's realistically flawed as are his girlfriends. It's about their relationships, not about their sexual escapades.

IIRC, the people behind this movie were involved with "About a Boy" and some other really good movies that look at a guy's life through a more thoughtful lens than your typical throw-away frat pix.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in RL, 3 is no big deal as long as it's serial monogamy, but in Hollywood, 2 means you're a real catch(especially if they fight over you), and 3 or more means you're really hot stuff. And again: just casually viewing it, the jumbling in the trailer can give very strong impressions.

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

I assumed they were serial girlfriends, and it was a "how I met your mother" kind of deal, but it still never made me want to see this movie very much.

Then my mother saw it. And now I HAVE to see it because OH MY GOD it is the BEST. MOVIE. EVER.

I love my mother, but I question how much I am prepared to do for her.

[sodapopgirl703.livejournal.com]

My mom saw a preview for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and now absolutely insists that we see it together. So I feel ya.

[jessicamee.livejournal.com]

wow, i bet she really wants to hear about that.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

That sounds so, so much better than the previews made it sound.