"Typical drama ensues when we see such as actors as Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks and Michelle Pfeiffer doing some good work in the film that hits most of the notes that a film with type of film would hit"
A film with this type of plot would most of the time be something made fun of by being called a lifetime movie but this film is not as bad those type of films and actually makes you care about the characters. Sam (Chris Pine) returns home when his father dies, returning home we see that Sam did not get on well with his deceased father. Meeting with his dad's lawyer he learns that he has a half-sister that he never knew he had. When he meets this women named Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) he takes a while to tell her the truth about him leading to the two of them starting a relationship which is built around lies through Sam.
The story is very predictable when such scenes as Frankie falling for Sam only to get super mad at him when learning the truth only at the end to forgive him over the thing they have in common which was a bad dad. Even when some of the scenes are predictable the film does have some great dramatic moments such as many of the scenes shared between Pine and Pfeiffer. Some of the writing was not well written especially some lines that had me confused and they mostly came from the son of Frankie and how most of his dialogue was laughable to me. I believe that the film is based on a true story because I would not know why some person would want to write and original story like this one. The film's cinematography was very bad to me because usually it seemed they used sunlight too much on these actors faces to try make them look more dramatic especially when Pine would look into the distant sometimes, this was not a good use of cinematography at all.
Chris Pine plays Sam and shows once again that he is not as good an actor as someone with his fame could be by taking risks. Everyone else around him comes off better mainly because he is just not a dramatic actor and should stick to his action films were he is not called to give a performance but just jump and run. Elizabeth Banks has been great at comedy but in this film as Frankie she gets to show how her dramatic work can be. She has fun in some scenes opposite Pine but sometimes when she is being dramatic she is believable but at other times she could have been better. She is better then Pine because her character does have more of a transformation. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Pine's mother Lillian and she truly is the best thing in her limited scenes with Pine. It's not one of her career best performances but she does such a great job in the film acting very natural and being the most emotional performance in the film that made me tear up sometimes. Also some actors in limited time such as Olivia Wilde are also worth a shout out. The actor playing the kid tried to make this character good but I was just annoyed by the child whenever he said anything.
The film is fine with some moments that are laughable even if the film was based off true events. Performances are fine with Michelle Pfeiffer being the standout in performance and in emotions that the film really needed. Overall I enjoyed the film and the chemistry that a lot of the actors had in the film.
MOVIE GRADE: B- (MVP: Michelle Pfeiffer)
A film with this type of plot would most of the time be something made fun of by being called a lifetime movie but this film is not as bad those type of films and actually makes you care about the characters. Sam (Chris Pine) returns home when his father dies, returning home we see that Sam did not get on well with his deceased father. Meeting with his dad's lawyer he learns that he has a half-sister that he never knew he had. When he meets this women named Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) he takes a while to tell her the truth about him leading to the two of them starting a relationship which is built around lies through Sam.
The story is very predictable when such scenes as Frankie falling for Sam only to get super mad at him when learning the truth only at the end to forgive him over the thing they have in common which was a bad dad. Even when some of the scenes are predictable the film does have some great dramatic moments such as many of the scenes shared between Pine and Pfeiffer. Some of the writing was not well written especially some lines that had me confused and they mostly came from the son of Frankie and how most of his dialogue was laughable to me. I believe that the film is based on a true story because I would not know why some person would want to write and original story like this one. The film's cinematography was very bad to me because usually it seemed they used sunlight too much on these actors faces to try make them look more dramatic especially when Pine would look into the distant sometimes, this was not a good use of cinematography at all.
Chris Pine plays Sam and shows once again that he is not as good an actor as someone with his fame could be by taking risks. Everyone else around him comes off better mainly because he is just not a dramatic actor and should stick to his action films were he is not called to give a performance but just jump and run. Elizabeth Banks has been great at comedy but in this film as Frankie she gets to show how her dramatic work can be. She has fun in some scenes opposite Pine but sometimes when she is being dramatic she is believable but at other times she could have been better. She is better then Pine because her character does have more of a transformation. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Pine's mother Lillian and she truly is the best thing in her limited scenes with Pine. It's not one of her career best performances but she does such a great job in the film acting very natural and being the most emotional performance in the film that made me tear up sometimes. Also some actors in limited time such as Olivia Wilde are also worth a shout out. The actor playing the kid tried to make this character good but I was just annoyed by the child whenever he said anything.
The film is fine with some moments that are laughable even if the film was based off true events. Performances are fine with Michelle Pfeiffer being the standout in performance and in emotions that the film really needed. Overall I enjoyed the film and the chemistry that a lot of the actors had in the film.
MOVIE GRADE: B- (MVP: Michelle Pfeiffer)