Spin Me Round

After watching, I have little idea of what the movie was trying to do. About the only takeaway I had was the feeling that I had just wasted my time. The plot was not particularly interesting and for the most part didn't make a lot of sense. I guess the film was attempting to be a comedy, but it just wasn't funny enough to justify that classification. Alison Brie's presence raised my rating by 2-3 stars, but other than her there wasn't much about the movie I can recommend.

.. who is both the co-writer and the star (!), has at least one great film in her. But this is definitely not it. This script is however remarkable for setting up so many interesting possibilities and then delivering on none of them. The end result is maybe a 10 min SNL skit, not a full length film. And it was particularly unwise to cast Plaza in a secondary role, because her natural charisma immediately has the viewer wondering why she is not starring?

You know those movies that start out strong and build up a compelling plot, only to lose themselves in the final quarter and go down a convoluted road? This is one of those movies.

The first 2/3 is actually really interesting. It's sort of similar to "don't worry darling"- a seemingly normal universe that gets more and more absurd as time goes on. It's a comedy, mystery, thriller, and romance all wrapped into one.

And then- it's ruined by a rather flat ending. It feels like someone just didn't write an ending. I think this had the potential to be really great, but squandered it. Ultimately, only watch this if you're okay with a good journey but bad destination.

This was disappointing. It felt pretty long / poorly edited, it wasn't snappy, it was rarely funny, it was often awkward, it just feels like the script wasn't good enough, the story isn't good enough, and I'm a fan of the absurd and the two female leads. But this was just weak, aimless, and ultimately frustrating.

Near to the end, the Alison Brie character says "WTF is going on?" and most viewers will have asked the same thing about an hour earlier. The film starts off fairly predictably but once the action moves to Tuscany, no-one, except the above mentioned character, behaves like normal people behave. And not in a funny, zany-comedy way, they simply become progressively more weird.

OK, you think, at any moment now, the hidden under-story will reveal itself and things will start to make sense. But it doesn't, the plot just becomes increasingly illogical, as if the writers (Brie included) concocted it one Saturday evening after several bottles of wine, with no idea how the story would end.

Having said all that, it's not so frustrating that you don't see it through to the finale, it is set in Italy in the sunshine after all. But you will probably stare at the closing credits, as I did, thinking so what was that all about?