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I grew up with boy meets world and am lucky to call Michael jacobs an acquaintance so I had to support this film, but it was very odd. Like someone else said, it was almost like it was meant to be a play. The plot is basic enough. A couple try to decide if they're meant to be together forever and marry so they bring in their parents. Problem is the parents have been cheating on each other. With each other. It was hilarious at first, especially when everyone all arrived at dinner together, but it slowly unravels. Emma roberts character and her boyfriend basically just disappear from the film at one point. The movie just becomes everyone having inner dialogues, with each other. The movie goes in so many circles and Michael can't seem to decide what he wants to say ultimately. Sadly I can't recommend it. Such a waste of a talented cast too.

I had to put on subtitles for this. For a talky romantic comedy with no explosions. Christopher Nolan this is not.

Directors: pay attention to audio. At this point, we're nearly back to silent film with how badly y'all handle this stuff. Movie watchers all watched the explainer about why movie audio is so bad these days. Did movie directors? You should. I don't care if your actors want to sound more "naturalistic" with their mumbles and their whispers. They have a job to do and they are not doing it if I can't hear the words coming out of their mouths.

Apparently my review is too short until now.

I'm not sure why they made this a movie. It's clearly a play. The monologues are play worthy, the acting is play worthy, even the blocking is stage worthy. While the acting IS stellar, it's awkward as a movie. The main cast is fantastic, and the 4 parents definitely play opposite their usual. The couple in love have very little chemistry, and her lines border on slapstick. The thing is, I don't remember any of their names because it was SO strange to watch on screen. I would love to see this written as a play script and acted on stage with the same cast. It would read so much better if it was seen live.

Give us our time back. The writing was terrible. Almost no one had any chemistry whatsoever. This is especially true for Emma Roberts and Armie Hammer want to be. I was so bored I was counting the minutes to get out of the theatre. I could see it being entertaining in a play but it did not work in a movie. The music did nothing for the film as well as we could not connect with anyone due to how shallow and boring the characters were. Bringing the stories together usually evokes interest and lots of laughs but all this did was bring a chuckle, then it was back to watching paint dry. Frank Gallagher playing Frank Gallagher was the only entertaining part of the entire thing. Diane Keaton gets a shout out too as she was fun to watch. I wouldn't recommend the film to anyone, besides recommending to avoid. An A list cast that would have better spent their times promoting the movie than actually being in it.

The one thing i wanted to comment on about this movie is its dull visual style. There is almost no visual language at all. Every shot lacks almost any dynamism/movement. The color palette is fairly bland. The lighting is purely utilitarian. The weather is not used in any visually suggestive or symbolic way. There is a lot of grey, dark tones, shadows. In short, its dull visual quality only highlights the more talky and pedantic aspects of the script. It was originally a stage play and it's almost as if director Michael Jacobs-whose background is in TV-doesn't realize that a stage is at least well-lit. This is his directorial debut so I'll cut him some slack (as though he cares what I think lol), and I will admit I laughed a number of times. Macy gets all the good lines. Gere is stuffy and somnambulistic. Keaton is very good. Sarandon is okay too. I think Luke Bracey was the worst piece of acting in the film, and I imagine it's because he wasn't given enough takes, or that he didn't fully understand his character, which I would cut him some slack for because I didn't fully understand him for most of the film either. So, you can watch this movie, but I recommend stopping in the middle to get to bed and then forgetting to watch the rest.