Sleeping with the Fishes

I really related to this movie. Although the subject matter is well trodden it was such a valentine to love and family in such a sincere and offbeat way it stole my heart. The performances and direction was top notch.

Casting a few good actors with a truck load of awful Or awfully directed extras does not make for a good movie. Not often are writers good directors. Possibly a good script but was distracted by over acting. Too bad.

I was looking forward to this one for awhile because Gina Rodriguez is such an awesome actress, but it's not exactly the greatest movie. I read an interview where the director, Nicole Gomez Fisher, said she ended up stepping into the role of director because she really wanted to get her script made but the movie had no budget. Well it really shows, it's not a very cinematic movie.

Basically he gist of the movie is that Alexis Fish (Rodriguez) is a young recently widowed woman whose life is spiralling out of control. She's lured back home to where her demanding Latina (I don't think we ever got a hint as to what type of Latina her mom was either she was just "Latina" which is sort of annoying, not all latinos are alike, but anyway), and Jewish father live. Her sister helps her get back on track career wise and she meets a cute guy and starts flirting with someone for the first time since her husband died...

This is a pretty basic movie with a pretty basic plot. It is pretty lowbudget as well. Not an awful movie but a pretty paint by the numbers one. Watch if you like Gina Rodriguez or Ana Ortiz, who is honestly the best part of the movie playing Alexis' elder sister.

I caught this inexplicable mess on cable. This is a very silly motion picture: the dialogue is atrocious, the millennial sarcastic snark is unbearable, and the US Latino code switching would make any Spanish-speaking foreign national kick a hole in their flat screen. We are the only country in the world that puts out this kind of goofy trash.

The two female leads who play the sisters are moderately attractive but amateurish actresses. The rest of the cast are straight out of the Summer stock central casting. The sisters are supposed to be half-Jewish on their father's side, although the complete lack of humor in the film makes this unrealistic.

There's some banal themes about body image, "fat-shaming", and the main character is a widow who seems more like a whiny girlfriend whose boyfriend left her for someone better looking.

Woody Allen creating the model for this type of film 40 years ago and very rarely is anyone able to imitate it, much less come up with something new, funny or say anything interesting about the human condition.

Congratulations, I guess...

I saw this for the first time when it was on HBO and thought it was a really cute film with a lovable cast and some really great family moments of humor and drama blended very well. This was all before I knew who Gina Rodriquez was...and then I saw it a second time with some friends who were obsessed with Jane the Virgin.

The first time I watched I just enjoyed the story and related to coming from a mixed family with cultural divides. I felt it was overall a really good movie - acting, writing and overall production. The second time I watched the movie, I realized why Gina was adored by so many people. She's our generation's Julia Roberts - very adorable in a rom-com style flick.

But hands down the BEST part of the movie was Ana Ortiz. I smiled every time she appeared on screen, and it was so good to have her there to balance out all the "drama" Gina's character brought to the story.

I recommend it for anyone who has had to sit with their family and admit they don't have their $^i& together yet...and of course, if you wanna laugh!