Almost Friends

Just an hour and 45 minutes long felt very short watching this film. It could have been another 3 hours longer and I would have loved watching it.

The music is great, soothing and makes me smile.

Love Odeya (since I watched Odd Life of Timothy Green), she's wonderful and can act well. Freddie has a thing for such films. His presence makes me know this is a warm film that I would love to watch on a rainy day or when I feel sad.

I'd like to see a followup to this sobering charmful character story. I think what makes the main character endearing is his propensity for honesty. He shows a child like willingness to put him self out there and reach out for the person, who will be the one to bring out a desire to ask more of himself. She reminds him that he's worthy of the pursuit of asking more of himself. He learns that to have the one he wants, he has to do himself a favor and become the person he wants to be. Until he does, the one cares about the most won't be able to pursue him wholeheartedly. I hope to see a sequel that will show his career unfolding and hopefully a further developing romance.

Charlie (Freddie Highmore) was a promising amateur chef but after an incident, he has withdrawn into a static life. He lives at home with his mother (Marg Helgenberger) and her family. His loser father (Christopher Meloni) arrives in town and comes to stay with them. Charlie's friend Ben (Haley Joel Osment) pushes him to talk to his crush coffee shop girl Amber (Odeya Rush). The problem is that she already has track star boyfriend Brad. Charlie gets her slacker cousin Jack a job at the revival theater. Jack takes a liking to Charlie's lifelong friend Heather.

Highmore and Rush are an appealing pretty young coupling. They make for a fine lead in a standard indie romance. There are a few too many issues and too many characters. Filmmaker Jake Goldberger has overstuffed this when he should concentrate on the two young stars. First with Osment, I assumed that his role would be more integral. Quite frankly, his role and Heather should be combined. Also, it needs to cut some of the extras. I don't know what is that Amber's girlfriend's name but her only contribution is listening to Amber in the bathroom. Her character should be incorporated into Jack. Have Rita Volk play Amber's cousin. As for Charlie's dad, it's another addition that pulls focus away from the Charlie Amber relationship. I would love that quirkiness except he does something totally stupid to steal climatic time. I rather have them be a quirky married couple and leave the rest out. They have these two terrific young actors and should make them the sole focus.

It is COVID-19 "stay at home time" so I watched this on YouTube free streaming movies. I became a Highmore fan for the movie "August Rush" and more recently have been enjoying him in the TV series "The Good Doctor" where he plays a young surgeon with autism.

Here Freddie Highmore is Charlie, working in a Mobile Alabama movie house mostly manning the concession stand. He is wise and a talented up-and-coming chef but is stuck, unmotivated, perhaps traced to an automobile accident he was in not many years ago.

He encounters a pretty girl working at the coffee shop but is too timid to have a conversation with her, and certainly not to ask her out. Besides her boyfriend is the local track star.

I would describe this as a "soft" movie, there are several scenes where characters just couldn't, or wouldn't, express what is actually going on with them. It is mainly about Charlie's coming to grips with his lack of trajectory in life and finally deciding to do something about it. The coffee house girl is an important part of that as it causes him to realize some things he was suppressing.

Not a great movie, mostly forgettable, but a good watch for those of us who enjoy Highmore.

This film tells the story of a shy teen man, who decides to approach the local coffee shop girl who has a boyfriend already.

"Almost Friends" is sweet and relatable, and the characters are sympathetic and likable as well. However, it is just not very memorable, and does not stand out or touch people's hearts. It is good for brain off entertainment, but it does not offer much more than that.