It's okay, I guess

Rating: 4/10 (31 December 2014)

The acting is good and the story is okay but I'm not a big fan of this movie. Everything is laid out too precisely; everything is made to fit. All the details are handed to the viewer; it's too easy. I never felt I had to think about anything. Some people may like that but I don't.
I enjoy movies that challenge me; that engage my mind in some way. To understand, follow, and appreciate them, the viewer has to think. I didn't get that with this movie. I also couldn't relate to any of the characters; they felt flat and one-dimensional. As a result, I didn't feel invested. I simply did not care about them or their outcomes.
Really, I'm not trying to bash the movie. I just felt it was too basic, too simplistic for my taste. This stripped down style of storytelling seems to be used often by Wes Anderson. I hadn't realized it but I've seen quite a few of his films. I don't remember them all but the most recent I've seen, Moonrise Kingdom and Darjeeling Limited, have a very similar feel as TGBH. In fact, that's how I realized they were related.