Faraway Eyes

This is a novel concept for a story, when you die you remain in a type of limbo until you find a real soul mate among the other dead "single" people. The problem is the script, it is written by an amateur who has little imagination for interesting dialog. As a result he frequently tosses in disingenuous dialog and vulgar language as if that would make it seem edgy.

The current rating of 5 out of 10 is about right, it is somewhat substandard compared to other movies. But for me the high point easily was Christina Ricci who plays Scarlett, a soul who greets the newly deceased and tells them what their task it.

My wife and I watched it at home, streaming on Amazon. Except for the lackluster script and too much talking during most of the middle, we actually enjoyed the viewing. In fact it has many of the elements of a Hallmark story. The concept, in the hands of a more accomplished script writer, could have been an excellent movie.

1 - That Actors (Writers and Filmmakers) constantly do stories about, well Actors and themselves. They are way too impressed with themselves and think they are interesting enough for the rest of us to care about these endless expressions of being, well, Actors.

2 - New Yorkers constantly do stories about, well New Yorkers and themselves. They are way too impressed with themselves and think they are interesting enough for the rest of us to care about these endless expressions of being, well, New Yorkers -- otherwise, with the ability to pretty much blink themselves to another place, why in the hell would they stay there? Being in NY city for a possible eternity is in itself, close enough to being in hell!

3 - Short sighted people really do believe that the foolishness we live on this plane, carry on throughout the entire universe on all levels of existence. How can anything be so short-sighted?

4 - That men who have no ability to communicate in life will be equally as daft and absurd in an afterlife, and still make zero sense! Dear God let's hope not.

5 - That childish, misogynistic screenwriters will still be calling grown women 'girls' even in the afterlife, and not have graduated to any new level of understanding or respect. Again, Dear God let's hope not.

6 - That mediocre filmmakers can still get funding for mediocre films, while too many brilliant filmmakers struggle unfairly and ridiculously to get their films done.

7 - That grown men are still fascinated with sneaking peaks at naked women in inappropriate places as if they are grown-ups, when in fact they are just simple-minded pre-adolescent boys.

8 - That the logic you create in a film, no matter how implausible, can then become even more implausible when you change your own logic from scene to scene.

9 - That well known actors like Christina Ricci will deliver any kind of idiotic lines given to her. I guess that is a professional, huh?

10 - That Writer/Director Harry Greenberger has big time connections, and we pray he becomes a better filmmaker.

11 - That the Music Director has a promising future as does the Cinematographer, hopefully.

The plotline was promising and novel: a dysfunctional bachelor must find his soulmate after he's already died. Production values were surprisingly high for this low-budget film. The biggest problem was an amateurish script that was intermittently predictable, redundant and woefully inadequate. The movie would also have benefitted from a male lead with more charisma and authenticity. Christina Ricci was fine.

Its premise is very accurate about how it feels to find or not find love - like the universe itself is welcoming or rejecting you. A couple of the reviews here call it offensive, the idea that you have to find your soulmate to get to heaven. I think they're shooting the messenger. It isn't fair and that's just like life, if not death.

The execution is ropey. Feels like it could have been better, but was rushed or something, but there are just so many problems. In particular, we know from the moment the guy meets the girl what's going to happen and it's simultaneously a bad resolution and much too easy - and no amount of histrionic running around, of which there's a lot - can hide that.

If you had 2 hours and literally nothing better going on... sure you could put this movie on, maybe in the background while you do a hobby or something. The dialogue feels really forced and cringey a lot of the time. The main guy in the movie is the biggest weak point, he lacks charisma. This movie is also not doing anything unique in any way, after I finish this review I'm pretty sure I will never think of it again. IMDB is requesting a 200 more characters. If you haven't seen the TV show "the good place" I would recommend watching that or this 1998 Japanese movie called "after life" or that black mirror episode "hang the DJ". I think all those suggestions have an interesting take on the afterlife and on romance in a way that is much more dynamic content.