La hija de mi mejor amigo

This movie is categorized as comedy, drama and romance and fails in all three IMHO. Let's start with the tag lines: there's no sex whatsoever and it's about to get juicy but it never does, reckon that according to your preferences. As a comedy it delivers few smiles and even less laughs. The drama side goes a bit better if nothing else for the ever worried look of David (Laurie), a middle aged husband who could be attractive only to girls in desperate need of a father figure.Unfortunately the drama part is also predictable and without sparkles.Finally the romance: very little dwelled upon and without any surprise. If i haven't been harsher in voting it's because of the actors' effort, in particular Alia Shawkat (perfect in the role of the incredibly obnoxious Vanessa) and Adam Brody (my favorite scene is when he's back from China and discovers the "scandal")

Not my favourite film, but I was expecting something worse, to be honest. What I saw:

An enjoyable Hugh Laurie, as usual (yet not exceptional). Funny moments, at times. Some cringe-worthy dialogues. Nice directing. Impressively realistic. Thoughtprovoking, which certainly is its strongest feature.

I guess one of the main goals of a filmmaker is to make their audience FEEL things. Well, I honestly can say they did it. Most of them were awkward and negative feelings towards the relationship between these two, but they were there. Is that what they were aiming at? I don't know. I was disgusted by them, and angry. How can you so selfishly base your every decision on whatever seems to make you happy? And by the way, what's with the meddlesome mother? Your daughter's 24 not 18. Anyway, it's only 90 minutes long. Watch it if you have some free time and nothing else worth pressing play on.

"The Oranges" centers on two families, each with mom and dad and former teenage daughter (now a twenty-something daughter), living across the street from each other in West Orange, New Jersey. It's kind of like a dysfunctional family dramedy except the families really do function normal enough and well enough prior to the beginning of the plot. And also it's a comedy. It poses some fairly serious questions but presents them all in a light-hearted, humorous fashion.

Paige Walling (Catherine Keener) and David Walling (Hugh Laurie) still have their adult daughter Vanessa (Alia Shawkat) living at home, unable to let go of some hostilities from her teenage years. Carol Ostroff (Allison Janney) and Terry Ostroff (Oliver Platt) are trying to control their daughter Nina (Leighton Meester) but she's off on the other side of the country still acting like a teenager. But after a perceived personal tragedy, Nina comes home. And then comes home Paige and David's successful son Toby (Adam Brody) who's in love with Nina.

Two individuals choose to commit, or almost commit, a morally repugnant act. The good thing is, everything is still funny. In the aftermath though, they decide that they're adults, and choose to question the line of morality. Not only is the audience not expecting that, and thus we're forced to start questioning, or stop judging, but the other characters definitely weren't prepared for it, and they start questioning the directions of their own lives. While of course keeping it funny.

Another interesting choice the film made was to make Vanessa (Shawkat) the narrator. She is not directly involved in the action, she's only involved in the repercussions, but she's also the type of character that we normally don't think about how she would be affected, but now we're forced to. The character that we would normally associate with in the aftermath is Paige (Keener) but here she puts herself on the sidelines.

The highlight of the film, of course, is the incredible cast. The reading of the credits goes something like this: Alia Shawkat – oh, yeah, the girl from Arrested Development, she has some decent comedy skills; Leighton Meester – a new Hollywood "it" girl, let's she what she's got; Hugh Laurie – he's always fun and straight from a string of well-deserved Emmy nominations; Allison Janney – awesome (!); Catherine Keener – awesome (!); Oliver Platt – really?! He's a comic genius, this is doubly awesome (!!); and Adam Brody – well, now we've just topped off a dream come true.

The best news is that the cast completely delivers. Meester and Laurie are expected to carry the majority of the film, and both do it by playing characters that they've never really played before. Laurie pulls of sympathetic so well and Meester goes a little more subtle to be able to show us what her character is thinking and show us what her character wants people to see. Janney is her usual funny self, so is Brody, while Platt is again at top form delivering some hilariously subtle facial reactions and some comic gold physical comedy.

The least famous actor of all of them, Sam Rosen, threatens to steal the whole show as Ethan, Nina's hilariously sympathetic fiancé turned ex-fiancé turned super-apologetic-ex-fiancé. He's relegated to a pretty small role, otherwise the movie would have been about Ethan. And it's not supposed to be.

Now that the highlights are all uncovered, it's time for some warnings. The plot is exceedingly simple and we have to wait for each character to catch up to it before the next turn can proceed. For those that are completely invested in each character, this won't be a problem. For those that like fewer characters, this will be a problem. Also depending on where your moral center lies, you could have a conflict with the film's decidedly ambiguous morality. For all the lines the film attempted to cross they went for a much simpler, more dramatic ending, never crossing into the dark comedy territory. That might stop it from reaching more brilliant heights, but it also keeps "The Oranges" more consistently enjoyable.

Who Might Like This: People who like dysfunctional family dramedies; anybody looking for a comedy that questions some of society's morals; fans of anybody in the main cast.

Says "comedy, drama, romance" in the header, but I'm not sure it was really any of them. Wasn't funny enough at any point, the "romance" was semi-sordid and very awkward and led to the "drama" which was mostly contrived and uncomfortable. All that said, it wasn't horrible, whatever it was. It just didn't seem to know.

It's an unimaginable situation, so there really aren't many templates to work off. "Blame it on Rio" walks a similar path, and does it with far more laughs and absurdities... but it's borderline gross... at least in "The Oranges," the girl at the center of the crises is 24 and not 16... and the actress involved here CAN actually act. In both films, the whole midlife crisis situation is (of course) hopeless, ill-advised, and too destructive to even remotely work... at least "Rio" sees itself as a total farce, while this film takes itself too seriously.

So yeah, an unfocused and awkward drama, that seems to want to be more. That's about right. I'll round my 5.5 up to a 6 because it has a great cast... but if you miss this one, you needn't lose any sleep over it.

In the conservative West Orange, New Jersey, the Ostroff and Walling families are very close to each other. David Walling (Hugh Laurie) and Terry Ostroff (Oliver Platt) are inseparable best friends and they use to run together everyday. David has problems with his wife Paige (Catherine Keener) and he frequently sleeps alone in the office. Their daughter Vanessa (Alia Shawkat) is a frustrated young woman since she was not well succeeded in her career of designer and their son Toby (Adam Brody) is moving to China in a temporary assignment. Terry's wife Cathy (Allison Janney) ignores him and their daughter Nina (Leighton Meester) moved to San Francisco five years ago.

Near the Thanksgiving, Nina's boyfriend Ethan (Sam Rosen) betrays her in her birthday party and Nina returns to the house of her parents. Nina has frictions with her mother and she stays close to David. Soon they have an affair and fall in love with each other, turning the lives of people close to them upside-down.

"The Oranges" is an original movie about rules, happiness and selfishness. The story shows how selfish people are in an unusual situation that does not follow the establishment. Paige is estranged from David and they are living in separate beds, keeping up appearances. But when David finds a young woman that brings happiness to his life, she has very selfish attitudes instead of divorcing him. Vanessa is a frustrated woman and when she sees the happiness of her father, she never tries to understand and supports him. Ethan is a complete douchebag and Leighton Meester is an adorable young woman. The reaction of Nina's parents is what the viewer would expect from the parents. The conclusion is decent and well resolved. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Filha do Meu Melhor Amigo" ("The Daughter of My Best Friend")