Hello I Must Be Going

I don't know why is this movie so criminally scored. It's a well told, well directed and well acted original story. It does lose focus a bit towards the very end, but it remains engaging and sweet in essence.

The plot is simple but also tactfully told, moves along well and it's peppered with touching moments of honesty. The protagonist's role is refreshingly crafted and accordingly acted. It has a clear structure and a detailed pacing through which we are given numerous invitations to delve in the protagonist's emotional state and even to indulge in soul searching nostalgia.

I'm really surprised at how this movie got such a low score. I treated these scores with a certain respectability when reviewing the possible movies I might spend my free time with. Outraged, I say!

Amy (Melanie Lynskey) has left her husband and moved back with her parents (Blythe Danner, John Rubinstein). She is depressed and unmotivated. She can barely get up the will to dress nicely for a dinner party. At the party, she begins an affair with 19 year old Jeremy (Christopher Abbott). She becomes energized as she risks discovery of the inappropriate affair.

This is Melanie Lynskey's movie and her best performance ever. As always she is her lovable vulnerable self. But she stretches to encompass the many different emotions of her character. The only problem is the perfectly crafted speeches she gives. It's a thin line between poignant emotional truth and too perfect hokey monologue. Luckily Amy is a middle age character, not the usual emo teen. So I'm willing to go with the former, and buy that she's a lit major. Melanie Lynskey finally returns to a lead role in a movie. And she is amazing in it. I hope she will get more chances at the leading lady role in the future.

(2012) Hello, I Must Be Going DRAMA

Not bad movie, but was only credible up until a certain point, which was until the female main star who's middle age, begin to have one of many affairs with a 19 year old young man. The movie stars, Amy (Melanie Lynskey) who still can't get over a recent divorce from her husband of many years. And she shows this by staying with her parents house without taking a single step outside- similar to how a hermit would live. While hanging around there, her mother (Blyth Danner) then informs her, that as a result her husband trying to get some clients, both of them can go on to their pre-planned world wide vacation, except that they're expected to have dinner with the main boss. Upon bringing his own family to this dinner also includes his 19 year old actor son, Jeremy (Christopher Abbott). It's like Jeremy doesn't seem to have any other friends neither from high school or from college, no mentioning of any goals, including the fact that it would take an affair with a 19 year old to help a middle age woman identify herself is something one can see from a soap opera. Except that it's more credible on a soap opera than it would be for a two hour movie as it would require a time spawn of several months if not years for anything like that to happen in real life.

"Hello I Must Be Going" is one of those little independent movies that you must see it's heartfelt and it shows how one little lady can struggle and after once again finding passion set back out on her own. I must also say that Melanie Lynskey really shined here she's an underrated actress she has great sex appeal and range give her more roles! Anyway Melanie("Two and One Half Men")is Amy a recent divorcée who after bouts of depression seeks comfort and shelter by moving back in with her cultured and well to do parents(Blythe Danner and John Rubinstein)in their suburban Connecticut home. The only hope for Amy comes in an unexpected gift just like the way it happens in many lives. After meeting family friends she begins an affair with their son named Jeremy(Chris Abbott)a caught in the cookie jar 19 year old actor. And this rediscovery of passion and intimacy starts life all over for Amy again she's a new lady! Overall this film has it's highs and lows as you watch Amy go thru tragic and funny crossroads of her life as even though she's caught up in a magical love story this girl has reached a point in her life of raw emotional honesty so she can go her own way. Again overall nice feel good film that shows life's a journey with many up's and down's as a rediscovery of passion can show you who you are. Plus it was a nice treat seeing Melanie at work.

A great performance by Melanie Lynskey is tainted by "dirty", completely unnecessary R-rated content that could have and should have been omitted to make this a clean PG-rated film.

While showing us a sad middle-aged divorcee slowly turning her life around by flinging with a teenager, this film preaches that guys are jerks, parents are hopeless, modern art is beautiful, modern artists are important, what Jeremy pretends to be is a great thing, how Gwen behaves about it is even greater, and also that are weed and anti-depressants are wonderful.

There's so much unrealistic profanity that it gets silly, and there are some indie trope traps, but it's an interesting film nonetheless. It's low-key and mostly well-crafted, with very good performances also from Sarah Chase, Blythe Danner, and Julie White.

Edit: After a year, an additional viewing, and lots of additional pondering, I will add that I now think this film is not about Amy but rather her parents. Amy gets most of the screen time, but it's actually about mom and dad having struggled for years through a stressful, unhappy marriage, and the effects this has had on everyone.

Amy's mom is miserable and a major insomniac. Amy's dad is in denial and manipulates. The parents seem to have given up at attempting to communicate with one another many years ago. Amy is a bit of a wreck with almost no self-esteem. And Amy's brother is a spoiled ingrate.

All of this, if you watch and listen closely, stems from decades of the bad marriage.