Alex of Venice

Young woman loses her husband and has to take care of her kid by herself. What's new to this story?

The good: acting is good. The story is sweet and gentle. There is a certain effort to make it transcend the simple story of a single mom.

The bad: it's tedious. It's too safe. This story has been told before, with much more spark and punch in other movies.

The attempt to portray Alex (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as a woman in flux, forced by circumstance to "reinvent herself", was lost on this viewer. Instead, little was done to drag her out of the mire of self absorption. She takes everyone around her for granted, and is clueless about what is going on with the people with whom she shares a household, most importantly her son Dakota (Skylar Gaertner) . It was very difficult if not impossible to find any empathy for Alex especially when her husband George (Chris Messina) manages, at a distance, to know more about what's going on with their child than she does. Alex's sister Anya (Julianna Guill) is invited by patriarch Roger (Don Johnson) during George's absence for reasons never revealed, and thankfully so, as Dakota would be a footnote barely visible to the story line, (let alone his mother), without Anya's playful interactions and wise counsel. Rather than building a powerful thesis on family dynamics the film focuses on superficial distractions like getting laid or barhopping as solutions to the very real angst that accompanies dramatic life change. We don't ever know why Alex's work is so important to her, or why she cannot relate in the most basic way to her son, or how she feels about her husband, or why she thinks it's okay to expect that everyone else is responsible for managing the day-to-day tasks of raising a child and managing a career. Supporting cast do a wonderful job of carrying an otherwise lackluster character study to a predictable end. Unfortunately for Winstead, she is faced with trying to unearth profundity from the shallow grave where Alex's character is buried.

I enjoyed this quite simple and straightforward story and script. The lead female character adds to the story and the script with her extremely natural performance and lets the movie flow smoothly. Yes, it could have become a deeper movie at many levels but that would also have taken away from the simplicity of the characters portrayed. I enjoyed it thoroughly and recommend it for a weeknight watch.

I'll give the makers credit for a fairly original setting. It's a household with a house-husband, a retired actor father, a little boy, a black male buddy of the father, and a kooky, free-spirited sister in Venice Beach, California. The lead is an environmental lawyer.

Well, movie people write about stuff they can relate to. These characters are Godless, artistic, environmentally concerned, and unconventional. The viewer in Central Nebraska may not relate to them, but some of the themes are supposed to transcend setting.

Of course Venice never looked so good. The family lives on a quiet street and roams the area in peaceful bliss. In reality, that place is filled with homeless, druggies, gangs, and barflies. But the way it was presented was quite pleasing.

I like Chris Messina. He comes across as a thoughtful guy in his indie appearances, and also in this one as director and costar. The lead lady is beautiful when she has make up on, so guys will appreciate that. She can act too. Check out Final Destination 3. Don Johnson is excellent, and Chris Messina brings a gravitas to the screen.

The kid actor was perfect as well. He didn't have gratuitous cutesy scenes or dialog. You felt his sincere confusion over the drama in the household. The wild sister could have overplayed her role, but she didn't. She hit the mark.

As others have said, there could have been some more profound dialog about the meaning of life, but I thought the lead's closing argument in the court room scene was well-written. I also like the way they worked a Checkhov play into the story. It was supposed to parallel Don Johnson's character's predicament of growing old and being left behind.

Black folks will appreciate a wonderfully understated performance by Derek Luke.

Yes, I would have preferred more background on everyone. Where is Don Johnson's wife? Does the painter husband make a living? How did the lead get so involved with the environment? Give us a tad more about the sister. There was some attempt to explain her, but not enough.

How did Derek Luke's character make his initial money? There is also a small role played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She looks great for her age. Almost the same as she did 30 years ago, although slightly heavier.

I'm glad they did not bombard us with an obnoxious soundtrack. Most of the background music is just a dramatic one-note hum to increase the feeling of intensity.

All in all, not a bad picture if you simply accept the fact that it's about people who some of us may not relate to. The performances are sensitive, gentle, and understated. The atmosphere is appealing, and the attempt to make some sense out of the chaos of changing lives was adequate if not memorable.

This should be at least some 20 minutes longer. From beginning I felt whole storytelling as rushed. Husband suddenly announces that he can't do it anymore, and leaves. But we couldn't see almost nothing why, how family was really dysfunctional. And it was so most time. I don't know who to blame more: writers or director. Probably both. It seems that director felt in love with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (MEW in further text), and focused on her all time - there was plenty of scenes with only her on screen. Actually, I can not blame him for that - camera loves her, and she was ideal cast for idealistic, as young dedicated to school, work type young woman. I watched this mostly because of her. Don Johnson was pleasant surprise in atypical role. Unfortunately, there is strong impression that male characters were not just lower time on screen, but presented as lower worthy. Still, it could be pretty good indie movie with better storytelling and more time. Was problem with budget or directors inexperience, I can't tell. Acting from MEW, Don Johnson and Skylar Gaertner was superb. Other did good job too. My rating is 6 - it was watchable, not boring, maybe simply because you can not stop to watch MEW :-)