Abby in the Summer

Everyone gets screwed in this lackluster movie.. the lead actor.. the ex-boyfriend.. the husband.. an unborn child.. and ultimately, everyone viewing this tepid piece of whatever. Starts off, she has lots of free time on her hands, and she's bored. Subsequently she unexpectedly runs into an ex (that she had abruptly walked out on), and not batting an eyelash, starts up and continues a months long affair with him. And we're all left clueless what was so wrong with the seemingly very good-guy hubby. Then we have to guess her hormones subside, guilt takes over.. whatever, and she decides to dump the repeat lover (again), heads back to the arms of the totally clueless spouse... supposedly to live happily ever after. Of course, she never utters a word to him about her infidelity, and that the kid might not have been his. Yea.. she's a real sweetheart-keeper this one is. (Her pix on bing more exemplify the real Abby.) And seriously, could anyone possibly believe after being unceremoniously kicked to the curb.. now twice, that he's not going to hastily revenge out-her. Now that's the way it rightfully should have ended for her.. she deserves to have to crawl back for a third try.

Making the Rules is a film about a chef, Abby (Jaime Pressly), who is seriously injured on the job. And, until her hand had healed, she's unable to go back to work. Instead of working, she stays home and forces herself to relax—which is not easy due to her rather intense personality. Soon, she gets bored and decides to start seeing an old boyfriend—which is a problem since she is already married! It gets worse when she sleeps with this boyfriend and soon finds herself pregnant—and she isn't sure whose child it is. Her motivation to do this is very vague, as her husband seems like a pretty nice guy and he puts up with Abby's snippiness. Her frequent ambivalence towards both of them just baffled me—as she soon tired of the boyfriend. She is a woman who has no idea what she wants in life nor does she have any sort of moral compass. She simply acts on her feelings.

I had a SERIOUS problem with the plot of this movie as I watched it. I didn't care for the main character at all and this is an insurmountable hurdle for most films. With some types of movies (such as a western or war film or film about Hitler) you are expected to hate some of the characters, but with a modern slice of life film like this one, this is very tough—and almost impossible when the person is the leading character. To me, Abby came off as occasionally nasty, very self- absorbed, rather tense and unlikable. Add to that a nice dose of adultery, and you have a film that is very hard to like. So, while Abby's very, very pretty outside, she's very ugly within and not a person you can admire or relate to—at least for the average person. This just makes me wonder why they wrote this sort of a film in the first place. Did this seem normal in the least to anyone making the film? The film is a lot like a rom-com with neither the romance nor the comedy nor the likable lady. It didn't help that the film also was rather slow and low energy.

So is there anything I liked about the film? Not a whole lot. The acting was generally good but the pacing and story just left me very cold. And, there are simply a lot of wonderful cooking movies out there that I would recommend instead, such as Mostly Martha or The Big Night. Each of these films featured characters who were flawed but ultimately quite likable.

I don't normally write reviews but this movie deserved others to be warned - I wish I had been. This may possibly be the worst movie I have ever seen. I found myself praying I didn't have to watch her go through 9 months of pregnancy while her husband drilled their deck and she watered her flowers. I actually felt the acting was as bad as adult-entertainment movies, like the plot was that horrible, and the acting was atrocious. The only thing I was left wondering at the end of the movie was how this movie got by without Robin Thicke getting a massive "wtf man!! That just wasted an hour of my life!!" from someone like Kevin Hart? Consider yourself warned.

I didn't care for this movie. I had no desire to see Robin Thicke in anything and that's why this movie was so far off my radar. I just wanted to know what happened to the washing machine.

The movie definitely had a slowness to it. And yes, she could be viewed as an "unlikeable" main character. But that's why I liked it. She was real. Life can be "slow", if we imagine it should always be fast. There are people just like her. Whose life is hum drum like the movie appeared.. I continued watching the movie waiting for a moment.. something that made viewing it worth it. Maybe most won't find that. But I did. The listless lead portrayed in this film I see in my everyday life. Selfish, disconnected, and not in tune with what's most important in life. So caught up in their "busy" lives, self-spun, they forget to just STOP & listen to their mothers! And think.. Hey! Maybe I don't know everything.. Maybe I'M wrong & not everything around me.. I've been hurt, but who am I hurting? These are conclusions many never reach, in life, not just while watching a movie. Yet this movie pointed a headlight on it. I liked that. I didn't feel that 'thing' I was hoping for until.. She realizes the right choice. Perhaps it was her tragedy, perhaps it was watching someone else's pain. Whichever.. It was nice to see her moved to change, and it made the 2nd to last -sofa scene- important. Seeing someone else. Helping someone else. Doing a much needed repair, on her OWN, using the 'tools' her momma taught her. No matter how "strange our parents may seem" can't we harvest some truth from what they teach? It's title had no meaning until the final scenes, for me it accomplished its feat. Out of a chosen mediocre life, ALL of us can snap into place, and make it happy, if we choose to Make The Rules.