Answers to Nothing

This is kind of an answer to another review... I voted 10, to increase the score of the movie, although I think is a clear 8.

If you think movies about real people, real problems and damaged people are not your thing, please don't watch this movie.

This movie is amazing in characterizing several kinds of people, is so replete of so many different styles and personalities. All of them has a different role and all of them is extremely important.

I would not like to say much, because I will spoil the movie, but maybe the reason the movie is so hateful, is because people see them in some of the character and hate themselves...

Just pay attention to the details and you will have the answer to EVERYTHING.

I saw this film at the Napa Film Festival and was blown away! Dane Cook is not someone I would normally peg as a great actor but this guy has the chops. Major acting skills here. I didn't even think about it being Dane Cook at all the whole film. I was totally engrossed in his story line. However, this film is not just about Dane Cook's storyline his is only one of many which is one of the reasons I liked the film so much. There are about 5 different main characters which you follow as you watch the film and they all intersect through out the movie. Not the most original idea ala Crash or Magnolia...but this film pulls it off. The movie moves smoothly from scene to scene and there is a big climax at the end that I wasn't expecting. There is some great acting talents in this film. Unknown and known actors, TV, film actors and newbies. The music in the film is also fantastic and I will be buying the soundtrack to this one for sure.

Answers to Nothing is that rare combination of an ensemble cast grappling with life's complexities without descending into heavy handed storytelling. It both lifts you up and crushes you down as you recognize the various shades of yourself in the characters. I have been weary of ensemble dramas like this since the manipulative'Crash', but I felt the director and cast did a superb job and the emotion really builds to something tangible and rewarding. The singer Aja Volkman of 'Nico Vega'provides an emotional charge right through the film and Mad Men actor Mark Kelly gives a great turn as a gamer/High School teacher out for justice. Great film - highly recommended.

This movie surprised me. There were some really great performances from people I didn't expect, namely Dane Cook. He seems to be a very divisive person in pop culture and I found his performance emotional and honest. It was a sort of a slow story that was all building to the twists at the end. It felt like Crash or other movies where all of these random stories collide in dramatic ways.

Some parts I sort of got bored with the pacing of the story. But there were also some really nice moments. Like when the amazing Elizabeth Mitchell buys baby clothes and stuffed animals and can't tell the check out lady she doesn't have a child. And then she has the box in her trunk full of baby clothes. That was beautiful acted and very emotional.

I also thought all of the scenes with the paralyzed brother and the recovering alcoholic sister. It just felt real and raw and I like it.

Good movie if you want something a bit on the dark side.

Writer/director Matthew Leutwyler manages to challenge the concentration and intellect and attention span of the viewer in this non-linear and ultimately satisfying intertwining of stories that examine the bad in the best of us and the good in the worst of us. Against the backdrop of a child abduction case (person of interest is next door neighbor Beckworth (Greg Germann) we follow five days in the life of Frankie, a single parent detective (Julie Benz) assigned to the case, her best friend Kate (Elizabeth Mitchell) whose determination to get pregnant keeps her from confronting Ryan (Dane Cook) her psychologist husband's infidelity with rock singer Tara (Aja Volkman) while he is attempting to reconcile his parents (his fragile mother played by Barbara Hershey) long separation, an on-line video game addicted school teacher Carter (Mark Kelly) and his obsession with the missing child that pushes him to the edge of vigilantism, a beat cop Jerry (Erik Palladino) grieving over the violent death of his wife, Drew (Miranda Bailey) recovering addict and her wheel chair bound brother Erik (Vincent Vinteresca)preparing for the LA marathon, and Allegra (Kali Hawk), a self-loathing African American TV writer's search for love who happens to be a patient of Ryan's (and who is on the brink of a mixed courtships with a shy and likely virginal Evan played by Zack Gifford). The string of stories asks us to look at their lives (and ours!) and to take action where it is needed to end injustice.

The cast of characters is so strong that despite the rather confusing progress o the story we get to know each character very well. The ending is exceptionally well handled. This is one o those surprise films that appears on the surface to be one of those shallow/too much too fast director's egomaniacal art films, but by film's end the audience simply cannot fail to be touched in many different positive ways.

Grady Harp