The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

In short, I liked this movie a lot; it made me laugh and cry, though not without a few eye-rolls in between. That being said, I think it deserves more than the 5.5 rating--at least 6.5/7.

I agree in part with both the reviews on here (the 2 star, and the 8 star) in that sure, it was cheesy at times and the writing often struck me as contrived, but the superb acting from our two leads carried the movie to heights it wouldn't have achieved otherwise.

I'm a Sudeikis fan and as usual he delivered a solid performance. I believed and felt what his character was going through--the paralyzing, confused helplessness of loss and subsequent searching for understanding.

Maisie Williams is awesome. I felt like even though Sudeikis got more screen time, Williams was the star here and kept me intrigued throughout. Such a great, authentic actress.

Overall, really enjoyed the movie and would definitely recommend it.

The is movie about two strangers who have been left behind by the most significant person in their lives, and about how this bonds them as they engage in a bold project to sail from New Orleans to the Azores on a homemade raft.

Much of the wisdom is communicated by the voice-over commentary of 16 year-old Millie (Maisie Williams) who sounds like a deep south version of Christina Ricci's character in "The Opposite of Sex". The film is a little clumsy and Millie's accent is unnecessarily over-the-top but it is a good message and an overall pleasing effort.

Most profound is Millie's ambiguous statement about people dying when nobody is looking and living while nobody is watching. By which she is expounding on both their bold but by design unobserved rafting effort and on the human condition where many lives are lived without making a ripple in the fabric of society. And perhaps a third meaning, that the cool kids are so caught up in their clique that they have defined and made a cursory dismissal of everyone, blissfully unaware that awesome things are happening all around them.

There is a particularly interesting image early in the film, a shopping cart tipped over at the water's edge with a helium balloon trapped inside the inverted basket. Again this has lots of meanings, free spirit Penny trapped in the twisted metal of her wrecked car and unable to soar, Henry trapped by his grief, and Millie trapped by her defenses and unable to connect with anyone.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I chanced upon The Book of Love while channel-switching, saw Maisie Williams, looked for the repeat and watched it. I very nearly didn't because the synopsis made it look like a Hallmark production (bereaved architect heals himself by helping troubled teenager build a raft to sail round the world) but I thought, "What the hell, it's Arya" and watched it. I'm glad I did, because although it contains a slew of "heartwarming" clichés, it plays around with them in a very quirky way, to the extent that it's almost but not quite a satire on the genre. But there's more than playing around with clichés: the relationship between the two main characters is lovely, and there are some thought-provoking moments, though it's easy to skip over them.

With a pretty decent cast, this film has enough to keep you watching but never going to be good enough that you'll be talking about it after it's finished. Not surprising that I actually watched from one of those free channels apps that usually play "handed out" movies that don't get viewers elsewhere. Not a bad film by any means and both Sudeikis and Maisie Williams are thoroughly solid throughout.

This film tells the story of a man who lost his pregnant wife in a car accident. He takes his late wife's incidental remark seriously, and help a local homeless girl. Together they build a raft to cross the ocean.

The plot sounds like it is a touching film about grief and healing. However, the reality is that it is more about irrationality and insanity. I can hardly believe a successful architect would abandon his job and embark on a clearly nonsensical project. The aim of the girl's maritime journey is a tools to the viewers, but in a fragmented and ineffective way. It does not make me feel that she has to go to the ocean. I don't understand what she has to gain to make that maritime trip, except to go on a suicidal mission. The worst part of the plot is that the causality of the events does not make sense. The person who caused everything should be doing the atonement, but it is not the case in the film. Hence, I unfortunately find the film making little sense.