Juanita

This is a nice picture. Fundamentally it's about second chances and changing your life up. The title character leads a life, you could say, of quiet desperation. A string of not so great husbands, children who take her for granted, and a job that underappreciated her time and effort has left her desperate for a change. So, without a real plan, she gets on a bus and heads...somewhere.

Her accidental journey leads her to the Dakotas, where she finds a new job and a new romance. Still, leery of falling into her old routines with others, she keeps people at arms length. But gradually she finds her trust returning, and even her family life improving as her children learn to survive without her enabling their worst character traits.

This last point is a bit on the rosy side. I mean, in an ideal world leaving people to fend for themselves would end with them taking responsibility for their lives, but there are somewhat less ideal endings to that story. Even so though, I think the story is nice, and an important reminder that we aren't always as stuck in our life as we might sometimes think. Life is long (when it's not being short) and the world is big, and our lives can be what we decide to make of them.

Juanita (Alfre Woodward) is stuck in a rut: her grown-up kids are serious wasters and her husband is long gone, leaving just her imagination and the elderly patients she nurses for company. When one patient dies, she takes the decision to change her life completely by buying a one way Greyhound ticket to nowhere - well nowhere she's ever actually heard of anyway. She finally lands in a hamlet called Paper Moon and is instantly pressed into service cooking for a Native American at his struggling and theoretically French restaurant.

This story perhaps works better as a novel. The pace is slow and the plot holds few surprises. As another reviewer says here, the movie lacks oomph. Everything is competent - nothing is special. At times it's quite funny and at times uplifting, but never exactly exciting. 6/10

Loved the concept of an empty-nester single mom taking time out to explore the world. There are so few movies these days that seem to be the perfect fit for the 45-55 year old female demographic.

Or to put it differently: nice story, horrible storytelling. Or: what the hell was the director thinking?

Had a lot of potential but it seems that there wasn't enough technical skill to get through with it. After half the movie you just lose completely the story arc and every emotional connection to the characters. And then it gets really, really painful to watch. Completely made up problems, new unnecessary introductions, horrible acting from some parts, it's a mess.

Saw this on Netflix. It struck me as a terrific idea for a movie, which was turned into a disjointed mess, badly directed and edited! It makes me want to read the book, "Dancing On The Edge Of The Roof"!