Ride - Ricomincio da me

My impression is nearly everyone is responding to this in stereotypical ways - seeing the mother as impossibly overbearing and interfering.

Actually mother and son have a great relationship. They argue intensely and in detail about what his stories should be like - and about life and their relationship in general. This is very well portrayed. And most of us should be so lucky to have such a relationship.

So she takes it too far - but hardly in a Tennessee Williams way. And they argue intensely about that too, and work their way to a successful conclusion.

Sure, it's all a little too Hollywood pat and neat in the end.

But you have an unusual portrait of an unusual and very good mother-son relationship - and a very passionately involved mother. She's very OK.

I enjoyed it a lot.

Ride

When a woman says that she's riding the crimson wave it doesn't mean she's a sunrise surfer.

Mind your, the middle-aged mom in this dramedy could be the exception.

When her son Angelo (Brenton Thwaites) drops out of college to pursue his writing and surf aspirations on the West Coast, Jackie (Helen Hunt) takes a hiatus from her editing job to keep an eye on him.

In California she starts taking surf lessons from Ian (Luke Wilson) and discovers a new side to herself apart from her son's post-secondary life choices.

Free to explore, Angelo also finds his rebellious view on education may not be the best option for his art.

From its superficial self-discovery script to its stock surfing shots, this vanity project from writer/director Helen Hunt does little to showcase any noteworthy talents beyond her established acting ability.

Nevertheless, surfer parents sound way less involved than helicopter parents.

Red Light

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I viewed this movie from the standpoint of a parent of an adult child as is the main character, Jackie. In my view this is what the story is about, how a parent lets go and enjoys watching her child make their way as an adult. In doing so, she is able to move on to becoming a more authentic person as well. I've always been a fan of Helen Hunt and although her appearance has changed, she still brings us her ability to make us feel we are watching a woman bravely dealing with what life is bringing her way. The film present a great contrast between their lives in New York and California. The son, Angelo, travels to CA to visit his dad. I'm a little surprised at how quickly the son, Angelo, adapts to the different lifestyle. Luke Wilson as Jackie's love life is a good match. His calmness contrasting with her franticness plays well.

Helen Hunt looks vastly different in this movie. It's only relevant if you are a fan of Hunt's before this movie.

I found the movie very relatable as Helen hunt plays an overbearing single mother whose college aged son, drops out to surf in California and she follows him from New York in order to connect by learning how to surf herself.

It's a drama driven by Helen Hunt in center stage and a coming of age story that not only focus on a boy trying to figure out his life but a mother trying to let go of the boy becoming a man, so in a lot of ways it's her coming of age story as well.

Not the best movie about surfing I've ever seen but I think I've only see two (Point Break and Johnny Tsunami), but it's one of those movies that really grounded on real life emotions and dealing with real life things.

It was a good Helen Hunt movie.

I'm conflicted.

Normally a movie of this type will be interesting and fun for most of the first 80 minutes and then end in a clunky manipulative way. It is that rare movie that is stubbornly insufferable for more than 80 minutes and then ends in a weirdly satisfying if predictable way.

It can be unbearable at times to watch Helen Hunt try and act her way through her impassively clay-like new face, as if she were a Star Trek Changeling character. It can be maddening at times at how sympathetic and misunderstood she thinks her character is. And it can be frustrating at how mechanical the scene construction and the in your face symbolism feels.

But I have to admit that there is a charming tone that coalesces nicely in the last 15 minutes. You know what's coming, and the unflinchingly cheesy dialogue up to this point is often unintentionally amusing, but when it happens at the end it feels real, just like the ending to the story she's been discussing with her son. There's just enough of a spark there to make you understand why she wanted to make this movie.