Ralph's Movie Reviews: IN THE LAND OF WOMEN

Sunday, May 6, 2007

IN THE LAND OF WOMEN

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Adam Brody: Carter Webb, a struggling 26-year old writer
Olympia Dukakis: his ailing grandmother, Phyllis
Meg Ryan: Sarah Hardwicke, homemaker
Kristen Stewart: her teenage daughter Lucy
Makenzie Vega: the younger daughter Paige

REVIEW
This is one of those movies that really deserves the “good” rating. It’s not lousy nor is it great, just somewhere in between.

Really there is nothing wrong with it except for Sarah’s out-of-character reaction to Carter’s letter (why can screenwriters not do one more edit before handing over the Shooting Script and clear up things like this? But I digress….) and the acting for the most part is fine (although we’ve seen Meg Ryan in better roles). There are light-hearted moments that provoke smiles if not outright laughter and unlike so many movies of today, it moves at a fairly good clip and is not overly long.

If anything, this “coming-of-age” movie avoids many of the pitfalls so often are part of similar films, except perhaps for the ending.

CLASSIFICATION

for sexual content, thematic elements and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
When Lucy and Paige arrive home they proceed to the front door in that order. The point-of-view changes to the house interior and somehow Paige now is in front.

While Lucy is sitting in a chair talking to Carter, we can see her in the mirror behind him. Trouble is, the mirror reflections of her waving her hands about do not match the direct shots that show her with her hands hanging down by her side.

Lucy parks the car just in front of the garage door on the left-hand side. After speaking briefly they get out of the car which has conveniently slid to the right to give her more space when she gets out.

While Carter is speaking with his ex-girlfriend, she hangs up and we hear the dial tone. Note to the Sound Engineer: the dial tone is there prior to dialling the number, not after. Get it?

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.