When David met David & Wes & Charlie

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2016)

From its squirmingly funny opening scene we know that this will be something of a soap opera but not viewed from the conventional angle. It's Wes Anderson characters with occasional flirtation into the world of Charlie Kaufman and even David Lynch and not a conventional biopic. At its heart we have the wonderful Jennifer Lawrence, everyday superwoman, who is a complete failure at everything except domestic maintenance, child rearing and holding down a lame job. Finally, suffocating under the weight of her self-imposed obligations, she decides to throw off those shackles and become who she dreamt of being all along. In her way are cartoon businessmen/gangsters, inept salesmen and scheming, jealous relations. Overcoming these challenges will require all her skills but even more so, her steely-eyed determination. It's a grand pantomime Mr O'Russell is attempting here and it almost comes off. The characters are quirky and comedic, the bad guys are charcoal bad, the factory that makes parts is empty and the product is drearily dull. It's just not quite quirky or funny or heart- warming enough. Yes, the entire affair hangs on the eponymous heroine but when you have an Academy Award winning actress at the top of her form that's no criticism at all.