Ask Me Anything

I just watched this film and it surprised me. From the blurb about this film I expected it to be trite and just a piece of fluff that would entertain for an evening. How wrong I was or how wrong the summary was. This film was so much more than mindless entertainment and kept expanding every step of the way. The mixture of flashbacks and her imagined life were so touching against the backdrop of her struggle with her current life. This is a sleeper that I would recommend to anyone. The acting was superb and the character of Kate was adorable. The production qualities were very top notch. And the writing wove a very complicated story into a tapestry of challenges for the young Kate that had me identifying with her over and over. There were small moments where I wondered why a scene was there or if the story was driven forward by that scene but they were so fleeting that I gave this film a 9-star rating. When this film ended I was both disturbed and moved. That moment in our life when things start come into focus but only if we are ready to see them. If I had made this film I would be super proud of the result.

I had no idea what to expect when I sat down to view "Ask Me Anything".

It occurred to me that this would probably turn out to be a fluffy, sensitive chick-flick and that I might walk out after a little while. My male ego often feels unable follow the psychological estrogen trail for too long... At the movies, anyway.

I mention this for all the male readers because I was truly blown away by this little movie.

It deserves to have little or none of its content revealed. I will mention the package: nicely written, surprisingly engaging, considering how modest and devoid of ambition some of the dialogs can deceivingly appear at the start. The picture is deeply candid and offers genuinely potent insights into cinematic gender language. It is fresh! It took me by surprise and wrapped me around its little finger in no time. Walking out? Out of the question!

The style of the picture is discreet - it allows some very subtle performances to come across.

Britt Robertson, the lead, deserves accolades. She is a superb actress - deeply vulnerable. What's more, she has a unique quality for an actress: she makes her protagonist fascinating long before we've even begun to get acquainted with her crisis.

The film left me speechless. In a good way.

A story has to have an ending. This film is 99 percent exposition. We get to know the character, Britt Robertson on every level. She is developing herself. She is learning and growing up and then we are left like her mother with nothing. She is not using her credit cards so what happened. The low ratings are justified. A great developing story has to have more than some folksy song to end it. The fault dear Brutus is in the writing. The acting by Robertson is tops. But give the story an ending!

Strange films make for strange reviews.

Robertson is actually in her mid-20s but in this adaptation she plays younger (ie, a teenager, clues are in the script if you listen) and that becomes a cheat of sorts.

The script based on book about how adolescent girls get "confused" by the digital age we live in, has a lot of plot arcs about cheating, so cheating is clearly a theme here, or at least a sub-theme.

The direction follows the vibe of Easy A, or Ferris Bueller, where the young person appears (initially) to be the smartest person in the film (possibly on the planet?) and the constant voice-over only adds to that impression.

I did not read the book. Those reviewers that did say that the lessons and morals from the book do not translate well onto the big screen.

I will concede the point to them.

Robertson, aside from playing younger, is also DDG (drop dead gorgeous) and seems to have gone to the Emma Roberts School of Acting. While she is not a physical match for Roberts, she mugs and struts and double-takes and pouts in the exact same rhythm, so the effect is (see the heading for the review) odd.

The other casting choices are also odd. Big names (Martin Sheen, Justin Long) drop by to play forgettable parts. Very odd.

The technicals are outstanding.

This movie seems light and easy on the surface...engaging and entertaining, but there is so much more depth to the movie and the characters than what appears at first blush.

The main character, a teenage girl seemingly lost, takes us on an introspective journey through our teenage years, our early adulthood, our complicated marriages and all the important and complicated relationships that influenced each of those stages of our lives.

The characters are intricate and smart and multi-layered. The book is even smarter! I rented the movie after reading the book and I loved them both so much that I may need to read the book again and re-rent the movie!

Highly recommend both!