Likely Story, Olympus Pictures,
Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Allison Janney, Alia Shawkat, Adam Brody, Leighton Meester
Life in The Oranges in New Jersey is good. Two families are neighbors and have been best friends for years. The daughters Nina (Leighton Meester) and Vanessa (Alia Shawkat) have been friends forever. Nina is coming home after a breakup to celebrate Thanksgiving, and the families decide to match her up with the neighbor’s son Toby (Adam Brody), but Nina decides Toby’s Dad, David (Hugh Laurie) is very attractive and they start into a top secret affair. As usual, they can’t keep the secret forever, and chaos ensues in a hurry. Both families about to be blown apart in this suburban family comedy also featuring Oliver Platt as Nena’s father.
This film reminds me a lot of the 1984 Michael Caine film, “Blame it on Rio”. Somewhere around here I have a VHS copy of that film as I rented it from Blockbuster (remember them?) way back in the day and misplaced it and forgot to return it. By the time I took it back, it seems I owned it. It was a funny film, and very similar to this in the plot. Basically this is a story about two families who are torn apart because their own broken relationships brought to the open by infidelity. But it’s done in a really funny way. The subject matter is dark and serious, but the humor is there throughout the way. The acting is superb. All of the leads are very, very good, and the daughters are two of the best actresses around, and also do a great job. All in all this is a really well done comedy/breakup movie that is interesting from start to finish. I enjoyed watching this movie, and though it was a small film that did not attract a lot of attention, it’s now available on video and well worth tracking down.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Movie Review - The Oranges (2011) {R},
