Full disclosure: I work on films...so my opinion is pretty biased.
For starters, I take no pleasure in trashing a film...this one is just unavoidable.
TL;DR = A marriage counselor tries to come up with an idea for a new book (deadlines!!!), while also trying to fix her own marriage...oh and there's a puppy. Bad cinematography, bad editing, bad acting, bad writing...just bad.
Now, for the main part:...I gave up an hour into this film. This movie makes Hallmark films look like gold. The cinematography was just plain amateur. Deep focus throughout, bad framing, completely blown out highlights...like, for real, there's a thing called "ND filters"...use them. They make them in gels too, toss 'em up on all those dang windows.
Production design was awful. White walls throughout, hardly any glasses in the cupboards, scant decorations...it looked like they rented an apartment for shooting and just used what was there. Very little color, which translates to very little life on screen. The moire was pretty atrocious, (which, if it were relegated to a couple of scenes, I'd look past it as being the screen...but there were a bunch of them...). Oh, and there's a part where a male dog does a very female dog thing...you'll see what I mean if you make it that far. Obviously, they had to fake it, and did a poor job.
The acting was awkward...very awkward. Think college class short film awkward. Which leads me to the writing and directing, which I'm sure was half the problem here: the writing is probably the worst part of this movie. So Much Exposition!!! This isn't theatre...I don't want the character to tell me what they're feeling, I want them to SHOW ME!!! Show Dont Tell!!! Ugh! That's my biggest pet peeve of all time. Adding to the dumpster fire, is the dialogue. Did they not do any table reads? Literally NONE of the dialogue sounded natural. It all sounded rehearsed...and exposition-ridden.
The characters were flat as all get-out. I couldn't care less what happened to them...not that anything ever really did. If it happened after the first hour...too late, you've already lost everyone's attention.
Editing wasn't terrible...but it wasn't great either...just kinda meh. There were a few very awkward cuts that should've had a redo.
There's probably a dozen other things I picked out that bothered me, but you get my point. Avoid, don't waste an evening like I did.
