High Budget Student Film

Rating: 4/10 (3 January 2016)

It seems like this was a student film using big actors. The cut/pacing was off - waaaay too long on some flashback scenes. We, the audience, totally forgot that a flashback was going on and when it switched back it was off-putting. The sound and scoring was way off - the music was probably just someone's iPod stuck on shuffle. There were some scenes where the sound was just sloppy - fading prematurely and out of sync with the mouths. Enough that it was distracting. There were a few interesting camera angles and shots that were visually appealing. As for the story, I thought it showed promise, but was poorly executed. The beginning drags on and adds little to the story. Neil's introduction was interesting, well written and clever - it also seemed like there would be more of him in the film based on how he was brought in and built up. It left me disappointed and confused. I would have liked to have seen more interaction between him and Joy. JLaw gave a great performance in some poorly cut scenes. The only part when I really felt something as an viewer was when de Niro's character was going off on an apology for raising his daughter to be too confident and aspire to something higher than she was - a lower class housewife. That got the blood boiling. Had they continued to go with that, they could have had a much more engaging film. They just let it fizzle with a lack of substance and an over abundance of odd, slow tangents.