Almost Friends

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Charlie (Freddie Highmore) was a promising amateur chef but after an incident, he has withdrawn into a static life.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.

Basically If you liked Freddie Highmore you'll like this movie. If you don't you won't like it. A lot of people are talking about how the plot was was badly written and the acting was emotionless and the scrip was bland. I have to say I do mostly agree. It was a strange movie, I wont lie. But it was in a way kind of heart warming, in it's own way...

Basically this is a movie you have to shut off all previous judgements and dive in, it's going to surprise you. You'll be able to enjoy it if you don't pick everything that's wrong or weird about it because there's a lot.

Solid rom-com that was kind of predicable but had some sparks for what I would call a teen film. This film will have you rooting for the underdog.

A few minutes in and you'll probably figure out how the movie is gonna end; an awkward, shy yet talented teen has a crush on the pretty girl who's dating the high school athlete but is starting to realize he might just not be the one. But they're not teens, nor in high school, they're in their mid 20's; and despite the predictability, they did try to add in a few more bits to make it a bit more fascinating, it didn't work as well as they probably wanted it to but I'm glad they did it. I think it's one of those movies were you already know how it's gonna go but can still enjoy it, if you let yourself.

I watched it because I kept seeing this quote for a while now: "You know what's strange about you? On one hand you're painfully shy, and on the other hand you say these things that I don't think I could ever say." and knew it was from this movie so it was just one of those things I really wanna watch but kept postponing. Yes it's not as good as I thought it was gonna be, in spite of that I still like it. It's close to being good. I don't think it's gonna have you rolling in your emotions, butterflies and all; but if you just wanna sit down, relax and watch a romcom with your brain shut off, this is not a bad way to spend your afternoon.