Horribly marketed

Rating: 8/10 (24 June 2014)

I remember seeing advertisements for this film and thinking it was nothing I would want to go see. Finally got around to it some years later and realized it was actually a great movie with a great story.
It's a story about redemption ultimately. And ironically enough I related mostly with Justin Timberlake's character; a young boy who feels he has to prove something to the world despite his medical problem. Loved (truly loved) by a woman/girl who doesn't care and loves him just the way he is. He leaves because he feels he has to force himself to become a man so he can take care of her. Not realizing that love is about taking care of each other, and allowing yourself to be taken care of.
Rae kind of handles his absence by going on a bender. Drugs, alcohol, and even sex. Continually trying to (for lack of a better term) fill the void Ronnie has left. You see it all the time in dozens of movies and TV shows, except it's usually a man going on the bender when the woman he loves breaks up with him.
Lazarus is essentially an extreme form of rehab for Rae and in a sense, himself. He has someone to take care of as she becomes the daughter he never had.
I really like the end of this movie as well since it shows Ronnie will probably never be the hard- ass he thought he needed to be and it's not a bad thing to depend on someone else. I also like the symbolism of Rae's gold chain since it's essentially saying that she is her own keeper now.
All in all, a great movie... just not the one they advertised it as. It's actually much more mature instead of the sex-filled festival the trailers and commercials made it out to be. It's much like Inglorious Bastards in that way since that film is also great... but the subject is not the Bastards.