Telling You

Saw this on Comedy Central last month. Some of it is downright silly but throughout there was something sad and honest about it. Facinelli and Mihok are great together. Scenes with the old man (who apparently is the Ancient Mariner of Coleridge's epic poem) are compelling but kind of seem out of place. Or maybe not- that's what I mean by weird. The movie has a confused leading character and the story doesn't exactly clear things up, but in a way, that's the point. The actors get to be outrageous but everyone knows these types of people so it's a believable world. Kinda reminds me of that idle time right after college, back at home, and not knowing what, if anything was going to become of life. Good parts, good ending, but it makes very amateur mistakes.

"All money hangin' out like a big ol' pimp!" If you've seen this movie, you'll probably remember this line. I love Matthew Lillard. But this movie was really bad! His parts were pretty funny, but the rest of the movie was just kinda thrown together. I didn't like it at all!

A few years ago, I went to the video store full of joy. The Matrix had been recently released and I was aching to see it again. My girlfriend of the time made me choose this instead claiming it was more the kind of thing we could both watch.

I have still never forgiven her. It has been six years.

The plot, as I recall, opens with a long anecdote about a scorned woman. It almost (but not quite) looks like it could be funny. Then the whole film becomes lazy and badly written. It has the feel of a really cheap novel, or something a teenager might write. There is little plot, little dialogue and less interest.

This is very poor film making, and I want those 90 minutes of my life back.

This movie is a pathetic waste of time, with a pathetic script, following pathetic characters. The two main characters are recent college graduates who ... are working in a pizza shop? If there was a plot here I didn't see it...basically a bunch of burnouts bumbling through life without a plan. If you're going to see a guilty pleasure high school movie, rent She's all That or Can't Hardly Wait (which, ironically, feature large portions of the cast from this movie). Those are much better done than this drivel.

Films are like fires, they start with a spark, warm up and build up the heat or they splutter out and die. This film is somewhere in between; there is a fire burning but it is just that someone comes along once in a while and throws cold water on it. To begin, the film is not really a comedy, it is a serious drama with light-hearted moments. Without the lighter moments you fear the story would be too heavy. What it really comes down to is whether you can empathise with the perfectly cast Dash Mihok as Dennis Nolan. If you've ever found yourself alone out in the yard at night wondering where life went wrong you will click in with Dennis and enjoy the story. So often Mihok manages to convey his pain and confusion without words, so you either understand him or you don't. The film so neatly sets out his problems and then neatly provides the answers. But like all films, there are the scenes we would like removed; the opening monologue by Peter Facinelli is painful and Jennifer Love Hewitt grossly over acts her minor part. The worst is a scene in a club where glamorous females sit alone at tables awaiting for any male to come up and sort out their life. This scene should be put back in the Male Fantasy file where it belongs, but apart from that it offers an original story and some brilliant acting (especially Jennifer Jostyn) though Facinelli's character is too shallow to show his great ability. I might add the original title 'Telling You' is perfect; I cannot believe that anyone who saw it would name it 'Love Sucks as it is marketed in the UK.