squirrel-cute Mena Suvari

Rating: 7/10 (2 October 2017)

This film took a long time to win me over. As a collector of movies featuring pretty actresses, I am used to watching flicks that aren't even remotely in the award-winning classes. As for Oscars, I'm more riding on the backs of oxcarts. So, I was kinda bemused by the prospect of an actual real genuine honest-to-goodness Oscar winner. But, you know what? I didn't experience it as anything better than my usual fare. Well, some time after midway I experienced some more character involvement, and, by the time Lester had Angela there in his arms, oh that was a poignant scene, that music "old man lying by the side of the road, with the lorries going by" so beautiful, such ambiance, that was a wonderful scene...
...but getting lyrical about a scene that is so deep into the movie while I sat here for a long, long time thinking "nothing really special"...
Don't get me wrong. There's just been a helluva hullabaloo and I expected something stellar.
All I'm saying is that it is quite far from being so perfect as most people enthuse. Even the iconic rose petal scenes aren't as wondrous as I expected them to be after seeing so many magazine pics. For me the very best scene was Mena Suvari's squirrel-cute face, the close-up in the movie in the kitchen scene with the refrigerator, the one that fills the screen. (The one in the trailer is cute too, but not in the movie)
I think most of the positive response simply comes from the main character speaking to the people out there. So it is perhaps not so much the movie itself, but the emotional catharsis it evokes...
That. And Mena Suvari!