Desperate Pictures, Orange Studio, Why Not Productions,
Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni, Shiloh Fernandez, Gabourey Sidibe, Thomas Jane
Kat Conner (Shailene Woodley) is a 17 year old girl, living at home with a Mom and Dad who don’t get along. Her mother, Eve (Eva Green) constantly bickers and belittles her father, Brick (Christopher Meloni) who just puts up with it. Kat’s only escape is her boyfriend Phil (Shiloh Fernandez) and her friends. Her Mother seems to be getting more and more disconnected when suddenly one day, she simply disappears. As time passes there is no trace of her and Kat is now off to college. On a break at home, Kat finds her father is moving on, finally, but she’s just not ready to let go.
This was a touching movie. The time frame is supposed to be late 80’s. Shailene sure picks some difficult projects to work on, but she’s done another great job in this performance. Her situation is really sad, with parents who have checked out, and a boyfriend who’s not really much help or support. This is a stark film. It doesn’t pull punches, and there’s a lot of realism in the storyline. Characters are well developed, and the story holds a few surprises. The story is told by Kat, who’s the narrator, and so we get the pieces from her point of view as she sees them. If another character were the focus, it could have been a wildly different story, but I think they filmmakers did an excellent job of getting the teen angst down right, and we can certainly feel for Kat and the difficulties she has to deal with on her own. This is not for the squeamish, as, like I said, it’s a stark realistic look at life, but I thought it was very well done, and I enjoyed it very much.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
