The Giving Tree

This film needs to be re-cut (and perhaps retitled yet again) with a completely new soundtrack. I could have made a better soundtrack to this film with some dental floss and a fork. The non-musical elements of this movie are not without merit, yet the soundtrack biases the entire film for the viewer. Its syrupy sentimentality makes the viewer feel forced into emotions that would easily be achieved otherwise.

The dialogue isn't terrible, the acting is a little better, and the pretty cinematography on top of a sunny mountain in California is actually pretty good. The plot is a kind of hybrid of several tired Hollywood stories, but there are enough quirky (some might say needlessly random) elements to hold interest.

In the end though, it's Christina Applegate's mesmerizing one-scene (and a flashback) performance truly makes the whole movie worth watching.

That this picture was awful. I can't believe that I wasted my time watching this drivel. Gee, sub-par acting, retread actors, super-corny plot. Man, the person who wrote this screenplay must of had a tortured childhood. How do you get paid for crappy acting and lousy screenplay, cause I need the work!

BTW - Why does Lifetime show the worst films?

This is one of the worst films I've ever seen! No, it isn't Chester Novell Turner movie bad, it's just the most boring and pointless movie ever made right next to Gus Van Sant's 'Jerry!'

The VHS box cover states it's about a 20 something group of friends reuniting for a weekend at a cabin in the woods, "if anyone survives." Alright, so it's a slasher or 'Ten Little Indians' murder who done it? WRONG!

The friends drive up to the cabin in the woods and spend the next HOUR saying the same thing as the audience!!! "I can't wait until Christina Applegate gets here. Things will be so great when she arrives." Seriously! That's all they talk about for an HOUR!!!

When Christina Applegate does finally show up she's hanging from a tree! Yup, that's her big scene, hanging dead from a tree. Did she commit suicide? Was she murdered? By whom? While we the audience are now starving for anything of interest, Applegate's friends are totally uninterested. Apparently so are the police. We never even see the police arrive or the coroner take away her body. Did friends just bury her in the backyard? No one seems to care!

We do get some kind of flashback to Applegate and some of the other female friends being raped at a party. At least that's what appears to be going on, it's too hard to tell. Who were the rapists? Were they in the group of friends? Did they murder Applegate so she wouldn't talk? More questions never answered or even explored.

An even bigger question is who is having this flashback? It's told from Applegate's point of view but she's dead!

So the 90 minutes is up and the weekend's over. Another weekend reunion ruined by someone's death. Although they don't really seem to care too much about her dead. In fact they don't even talk about her death. The weekend just continued the same as it did before Applegate's death!

I truly have no idea what the point of this film is. There's nothing of value. Even if you're some kind of sicko and you want to see Applegate getting raped you're in for a major let down. The flashback is only 10 seconds and it's unclear what's happening other than women being tied up and men laughing. So maybe they didn't even get harmed and it was some kind of practical joke? More questions never answered or explored.

The mere fact that any reviewer here gives it more than one star just proves they didn't watch the movie!

This movie was torture... it was one of those things I watched at 2am trying to fall asleep (on Cinemax I think) and my husband snored peacefully. How terribly depressing and it took way too long for the story to unfold. Pretty bad acting all around too... sad to say SOMEBODY paid to make this movie.

This exercise in Gen X angst is unbelieveable, overwrought, poorly written, badly acted, and has one of the most annoying soundtracks you'll ever hear. Every time there's a lull in the inane patter (which is frequently) another overamplified and undernourished alternative folk song saturates the soundtrack. One of the worst films I have ever had the displeasure of sitting through.