Stuck In Love
Sometimes we have to endure a great deal of waiting for the one, or at least for the person we love and think is the one, to decide that they actually love us back. This is more or less what this film is about. I think.
Stuck in Love tells the story of a middle aged writer and a father of two whose wife, Erica (Jennifer Connelly), had left him for a younger, sexier man. Weird right, normally it is the husband who runs away with a younger hotter model. Hahahah how the tables have turned. Anyway, from the first scene we are introduced to Bill’s (Greg Kinnear) obsession with his ex-wife when he stalks her home to see what her and her new beau are up to. He also sets up an extra place at the table for thanksgiving dinner in hope she will join him and their two children. Now is that extremely sad? Or just super romantic?. I don’t know, I just don’t know. As the story develops we experience how the characters’ lives are influenced by this traumatic familial experience.
Being quite open about his feeling and obsession, his children, Rusty (Nat Wolff) and Samantha (Lilly Collins), are obviously affected by this family drama. Two archetypes are presented here, firstly we have Rusty the “hopeless romantic”. He is the sweet nerdy guy who is sensitive and simply wants to love. Then on the other side of the spectrum we are presented with Samantha, the wildly intelligent and witty beautiful girl unwilling to engage in deep relationships, as she believes it is all just a stupid way of welcoming pain. So, instead it is better to block off your feeling and get laid instead. Simples. Naturally, something in the film would happen that would challenge this view and lead her in a different direction. Oh life.
Samantha actually says to her brother that there are two types of people in the world the “realists” and the “hopeless romantics”. The realists get laid and enjoy life, whilst the “hopeless romantics” fool themselves to believe that there is one person out there for them. But really it is all just a stupid trap that results in getting your heart broken. When I first heard this, I was touched and filled with emotion. It would be cool to say I am realist, but I am not, I am the latter lamer counterpart. So whilst I was all loserish about this part of the film, I took a second to absorb what this means, and then it struck me how superficial this was. I mean how clichéd to just reduce love into these two categories. It seems to me that the film was trying too hard to depict the different extremes of love but in doing so it somehow failed in reaching out to me successfully. Instead I felt I was listening to the writers trying to tell me “look how eloquent I am” and therefore I was missing the point, the bigger meaning. Being philosophical and didactic is of course possible and it can work wonderfully and has done so in many films, but something was lacking in this film.
Don’t get me wrong; I love a good romantic story. The film embellishes the process of writing into its storyline as most the characters are writers or at least aspire to be. Theoretically, this sounds lovely to me, but truthfully speaking I was somewhat unsatisfied by the story, the pacing, the absence of reality, exaggeration and the constant attempts to be philosophical. To me it came across as rather clichéd, pretentious, and at time self-indulgent. I understand the concept of drama and that in life traumatic things happen. At University my professor told us that drama doesn’t necessarily mean a murder or death. But here, here, so much and too much happens that I could not keep up. The pacing seemed too fast for my perhaps arguably poor attention span. It pains me to say this but this was further enhanced by the inconsistent standard of performances amongst the cast. There were a few scenes where the acting felt cringey and forced. They are all such a talented cast and I did not feel their true potential shone through. Connelly and Kinnear were the strongest in my eyes. I feel perhaps I am being overly critical and negative but something did not feel quite right.
Samantha’s character for me was the most clichéd and theatrical one. I feel the transition from being scared of love to suddenly embracing it happened far too fast. The relationship between her and Lou (Logan Lerman) was not developed enough for us to get attached to it. I understand that the concept of time needs to be considered thoroughly in a film; however, there was an obstacle hindering my ability to connect to their love story. However, I cannot blame it on the lack of time spent on the characters’ growing love, because in a film like Crazy, Stupid Love, Gosling’s and Stone’s romance is sort of a side story and doesn’t take much of the screen time. But something is more successful in their love story than the one portrayed here. Perhaps it was lack of chemistry between Lerman and Collins or perhaps it was the fact that it was trying too hard to be philosophical that we focus on the theory about love rather than experiencing it.
Having said that, I feel that there are some well presented relationships. For example I found the relationship between Rusty and Kate sweet eventhough it happened fast. Evidently Bill and Erica’s chemistry was undeniable. But finally the most touching relationship was between Samantha and her mother Erica. It was interesting to focus on the aspect of how the breakup broke down the trust and relationship between a mother and a daughter.
The film was moving and there were moments where it did actually provoke a tear or two (ok fine I sobbed). So whilst I do sound quite critical I would not have watched it if I did not enjoy it on some level. Plus, I was curious to see whether or not Bill’s hope of his wife returning would actually happen.
The writing, if you just looked at it from a language point of view, was eloquent and beautiful but at the same time it made me feel as if the film was coming across as quite pompous. I am certain I am reading into the things too much, perhaps I was not having a good day when I was watching it. This film in my opinion needed to do less, to achieve more.
Despite all that I said, I am certain that some of you will really like it. So, give it a chance. I mean yes I was talking about love happening too fast that it seemed realistic but hey Taylor seems to think loving can be like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street
Faster than the wind, passionate as sin, ending so suddenly. So maybe I was being too harsh. Also, I so wanted to be less corny in my review but I somehow always end up being so cheesy. So apologies. It may improve in time.
Thanks.
Muchos love.
xxx