Paper Year

Having Andie MacDowell as a "star" in this is misleading since she only appears for about 5 minutes once near the start and once nearer the end... Which was a disappointment for me as I expected her to have equal screen time as the young actors, more involved. Could have cast ANY actor for the part of the Mum for all the acting that was involved. Definitely not a feel good movie. It is NOT a RomCom as another review noted. Again, also as other review suggested, any young people contemplating marriage must watch this as a warning.

Dan Delaney (Avan Jogia) and Franny Winters (Eve Hewson) get a quickie city hall marriage. He's a struggling actor trying to break into Hollywood. He gets to housesit and dog-sit for hot starlet Hailey Turner. Franny gets a job writing for reality TV game show Duck, Duck, Goose. She finds herself falling for the head writer, Noah Bearinger (Hamish Linklater). Is the first year truly the hardest...

I find Avan's adorably awkwardness not that appealing as a leading man. This movie is more compelling coming from her side of the story. His side is much less compelling. His jealousy has foundation but lacks any appeal. Her inner conflict is the most compelling part of the story and it would be better to simply concentrate on that. Eve seems to be an interesting actress. I find that if it's a man's story, the wife would be a smaller two dimensional character. This should be Franny's story and Dan should be fine as a limited character.

The basis of the film is off of two protagonist a writer and an actor, female and male respectively. However to call the actor a protagonist may be an exaggeration as the narrative is driven heavily forward by the female/writer leaving the actor to some what like just a supportive medium. The begining is slow and the narrative is lackful yet purposefully or accidentally the viewer is still engaged with the melodramatics of the newly wed couple. The acting is not a masterclass but is complimentary to the film itself and provides an almost intermediate vibe about the film.The narrative and development is somewhat underwhelming with many key focus points simply being brushed over with lack of attention, scenes which seemed focused on do little to leave an impact as the next scene rushes in. Overall the film is nothing spectacular and could be described as nothing more than underwhelming, however the potential for it to be an innovation in the romance/drama genre is ever present. A greater focus on key scenes and further character development of everybody apart from the female lead would of likely benefited this film paramount.

I enjoyed this movie thoroughly. Although classified as a ROMCOM there is basically no comedy in this. It is a depressing look at how so many relationships end up. The acting was superb, the directing was above average and the lessons learned and note worthy.

Over all I would say 7.5

... a lightweight title about a young couple not really meant for each other, so what do they do.. get engaged to marry... then after she has an epiphany involves hooking up with a guy (not her BF) sprawled across backseat of his car, she gets it that it's really not what she should be doing... duh

... both Eve Hewson and Avan Jogia do well enough as a fated young couple, there's really little heavy lifting for them to screw up... why this production was brought to screens another matter entirely.... imagine Andie MacDowell just a part of this for name-credibility and a paycheck

... it did go a quick eighty-nine-minutes, so that's a mercifully-good-thing.