Happy Birthday - Ein Geburtstag zum Verlieben

I loved this movie. I do not understand the bad reviews and the audience rating here on IMDB. I found this movie so refreshing a change from all the big budget hoopla out there. Something for we lovers of real life being depicted in film and novels. That All I Wish works to the extent that it does is a testament to its star's incredibly appealing performance, in which she seems looser onscreen than she has in years. Given the relatively rare opportunity to showcase her comedic chops, Stone more than lives up to the challenge, somehow making her character's quirkiness charming rather than irritating. Goldwyn, looking relieved to be playing something light after years of melodrama on Scandal, is also enjoyable. All the characters in this film just have chemistry as a cast. I can't get over how great the acting is in this movie and how it could be so enjoyed by such a critic of romantic comedies.

The chemistry between Sharon Stone and Tony Goldwyn works pretty well here, but I'm wondering, as other reviewers have mentioned, why first time writer and director Susan Walter chose to initially present Stone as a 46-year-old? Since Goldwyn is soon to be 58 in real life just two years her junior (as Stone is 60) , wouldn't it have been even more real and effective to start out presenting Stone's character Senna as a 56-year-old woman, who ages per the film's main premise. She is still so vivacious and beautiful that, at least in my mind, this would have enhanced the film even more.

Overall, I thought parts of this movie were charming and effective while other parts fell flat and were just not believable. Also, the characters were too surfacy for my tastes and never really developed fully. So, a mixed bag for me here and only a fair rating.

All I Wish is clearly a Sharon Stone production. It's Sharon all the way and that's not a bad thing at all. She produced this so you know that her heart, if not her pocketbook is into this. She plays Senna a woman of '47', is what she says in the film, and she's a bit of a bad girl still, having fun with younger men and doing doobies with her younger best friend.

In pops Tony Goldwyn and she falls for the guy, but to me it's clear that he is miscast. I was thinking that if say, Burt Reynolds were the guy there would be much more to go on. Goldwyn's character just isn't attuned to Senna.

The script is clearly not quite there in terms of drama, jump cutting here and there... and although it goes year by year, with every birthday Senna has, the thread is lost somehow. The romance a tad derivative in the end, leaving the players too much on screen time.

The film is too long. Sharon Stone is very good, and one wishes her more screen time in future.

6.1 Out Of 10

Really bad movie, boring, predictable characters, poor acting. I gave up after 30 minutes

I love Sharon Stone. I was in the mood for a movie today, this one popped up some where so I said what the heck and purchased the rental. The concept is sweet but this is definitely not the best Sharon Stone flick I've ever seen. The plot was fairly predictable and it just didn't flow well. The whole movie felt a little disjointed throughout, especially towards the end. I think the year over year birthdays could have been presented a little bit better, maybe not so many dang. Im sorry but this movie made Sharon's character seem a little desperate and I didn't like that for her. Tony Goldwyn was believable in his role and he is cute anyways, good job there. And of course who doesn't love the quirkiness and charm of Ellen Burstyn who played her role well. I just felt like overall the movie was disingenuous. I definitely felt like the direction could have been better and the characters could have been a little more developed to improve it. Oh and the roles for Darla, Kimmy and Vanessa made me dislike them immensely. With friends like that who needs enemies? That was weird to watch. Meh, I won't call this movie a total waste of time but I definitely wouldn't watch it again. With Stone, Goldwyn & Burstyn what this movie could have, should have been...we will never know.