The Bachelors

Not sure why this is listed as a romantic comedy. Truth be told, it is neither. But it is a study in the effects of grief. A gut-wrenching story of emotional survival; tentative and tenuous relationships; self truths; and the desperate need to come out on the other side as unscathed as one can, in the face of bitter loss.

Bill Palet (J.K. Simmons) is still depressed by the death of his wife a year earlier. He and his teen son Wes (Josh Wiggins) move out of their home and into a new life at a private school. Wes is partnered with troubled Lacy Westman (Odeya Rush) who has dysfunctional parents getting divorced but stubbornly still live together. The kids' french teacher Carine (Julie Delpy) try to heal their wounds.

The kids are great. This could be a great high school drama if the movie could skew more towards them. I don't have anything against Delpy and Simmons. On the contrary, they do great work with their roles. Nevertheless, it does pull focus away from the kids. It leaves the story telling scattered. I don't know much about filmmaker Kurt Voelker. He seems to get some good work from his actors.

For me this movie hit close to home as my sister and I lost our mother suddenly, when we were young, and at a time we were expecting many more years of love! I am sure this is the case for many losing a parent can be a hard fact of life at any age. J.K. Simmons always seems to rise to the occasion of any role he plays. This one is no different as you feel like you experience the pain with him at moments in the movie. Great effects as just like in real life there are memories that trigger the hardship of losing a loved one, and it is sometimes hard to get your balance! I felt the story as a whole was very well done as it starts out with J.K. Simmons taking his son packing up, moving, and trying to start elsewhere by leaving the home that him and his wife spent over 30 years in. As we all know running away from something doesn't help until we face tragedy head on. Some great acting also by Josh Wiggins (who I recently saw in Walking Out) who plays the son. I though the cast was well thought out, and and the movie gets support from all of them with some great acting. I especially liked the part of Carine who is played by Julie Delpy, many of you might remember her playing Carine in the Before Sunrise, Sunset, and Midnight Trilogies. Also her being French and being cast as the French Teacher in this one was a brilliant move. All in all an experience well worth watching as I liked the way the movie developed and took us all on a memorable ride and experience. Like I said one that many of us have been taken on a similar ride in a part of life that can be tragic and one that we deal with in many different ways. This one exposes many of the other characters realizing we all are dealing and surrounded by other's who can be hurting from life in different ways. Again a great Heartfelt triumph, very well done!!

So far I haven't seen every J.K. Simmons movie, but I am getting there and this is one of the good ones.

This is two love stories, a coming of age story and a story of grief all rolled into one. IMHO very well done, which makes this a really good movie to watch. It goes on the top of my re-watch list.

Julie Delpy is supurb as J.K. Simmons love interest, Odeya Rush is outstanding as Josh Wiggins love interest and I just loved the 1973 Ford Mustang used for transport with the backward facing seat.

I found this a very sad, but uplifting movie that really hooked me in. The characters felt very real. Anyone who has lost a partner or parent will know how the characters felt here.

If you don't shed I tear you were probably watching the wrong movie.

Worth watching and highly recommended.

8/10

"The Bachelors" is a Comedy - Drama movie in which we watch a father with his son changing town, school and job after the death of his wife. They both have to adapt in their new lives and deal with this big loss in order to continue their lives.

I liked this movie because it had a simple but very interesting and emotional plot. The direction which was made by Kurt Voelker, it was good and he presented very well both the plot of the movie and his main characters, their feelings, their relationships with each other and also their plans and dreams. For one more time the interpretation of J. K. Simmons who played as Bill Palet was simply outstanding and I believe he did an excellent job. Some other interpretations that have to be mentioned were Josh Wiggins' who played as Wes Palet, Julie Delpy's who played as Carine and Odeya Rush's who played as Lacy Westman. Lastly, I have to say that "The Bachelors" is a nice movie that presents with a very interesting and clever way a sensitive subject, I highly recommend everyone to watch it.