Corações Perdidos

Doug Riley is a plumbing supplies contractor from Indianapolis who lives with his wife Lois and reaching their 30th wedding anniversary. After they lost their 15 year old daughter in a tragic car accident the couple has grown distant with no exchange of intimate relationship and spoken barely few words a day. It seems like Doug and Lois both miss their lives inside yet don't know where to begin in finding it again. Meanwhile Doug finds comfort in a black waitress yet that relationship doesn't last long either even though it brings some kind of a peace in to Doug's life. Lost and torn this couple seems to be just living their days for nothing.

Doug goes to New Orleans for a convention and there he unexpectedly meets a 16 year old girl Mallory who is a stripper. Rather than taking advantage of her with her own consent Doug see someone else in her and starts to emotionally care for her. He somehow makes in an ambition to take this teenage girl out of her miserable life and give her some comfort and long lost fatherhood. But this task become difficult by the day as Mallory resist to change or to accept Doug's generosity even though she know his genuine motives.

'Welcome to the Riley's' is a heartfelt drama. Most of the moments are silent and filled with self perseverance but the script gradually builds up a solid story line. It's not boring even though it's a little slow which almost all dramas are. But there is something special about this one. This one is about self retribution. Don't know if it's totally correct to describe it that way but I feel like Doug is trying to find peace in his heart by dedicating his effort to make a something good for Mallory. The society is a wicked place to be good some times which the script proves over and over. The harsh words coming out of Mallory's mouth must have pierced Doug's heart one too many times. Yet he patiently set on his path which maybe his experience in life has tough him to do so.

Acting wise the movie is mention worthy. Doug played by James Gandolfini is a role skillfully done. And at the same time Melissa Leo effectively plays Lois the depressed, grieving mother who hasn't set foot out of the house for months. And finally the Twilight famed Kristen Stewart portraying the damaged and arrogant stripper girl make us forget her glamorous lead role in the romantic vampire franchise with her performance in 'Welcome to the Riley's'.

As a viewer you will be made to judge these characters. You will be asked to decide if what they do is right or wrong or if they did really succeeded in their roles at the end. Even thought it has no fairy tale ending this movie will live in your minds for a long time.

read more of my reviews at flickshout.blogspot.com

Ever since it's initial premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in January of this year, "Welcome to the Rileys" has always been on my must see list. Unlike other film critics and journalists, I unfortunately, do not currently have a career in film journalism. I currently do it as a hobby/part time job. What does this mean? Well I don't get to hit all the festivals I would like to, but only a few per year. In the near future, I would hope to have a career in film journalism and be able to attend at least 20 festivals a year. Thankfully, I did have the opportunity to catch a screening of "Welcome to the Rileys" at the 19th Annual Philadelphia Film Festival this year.

"Welcome to the Rileys" tells the tale of Doug (James Gandolfini), a man who seems to have lost all desire for life. He lives at home with his depressed wife Lois (Melissa Leo) who hasn't left the house in several years. On top of this, he seems to have grown tired of his job as well as his marriage. One day on a business trip, Doug runs into Mallory (Kristen Stewart) who is both troubled and lost. This is when Doug realizes that he can help improve her life and seeks salvation by taking care of Mallory. This is where the underlying details of Doug's life begin to unravel...

The best part of "Welcome to the Rileys" hands down are the performances. I have been following Kristen Stewart as an actress for several years now ever since I first saw her in "Panic Room." Many people seem to have a love/hate relationship with her thanks to her unemotional and stiff role as Bella in the "Twilight" franchise. I would love to convince people to give her a shot as an actress but people seem to be rather set in their ways on her. For Stewart, it's hard not being the typical hot young actress. She's a rather unique actress with a non-typical Hollywood look and that's what I like about her. As for her performance in "Welcome to the Rileys," she is both raw and risqué. The amount of bad language and how dirty Stewart looks in the film would make a sailor look clean. Stewart's performance is by far the best one in the film. She is a lost soul with very little self respect in the film. She plays a stripper, which is a role I never thought I would ever see her play but just plays it perfectly. This is without a doubt Stewart's best role to date and even tops her performance as Joan Jett in "The Runaways." I would even argue that Stewart deserves an Oscar for her performance here, that's how good I felt she was in the film.

Besides Stewart, James Gandolfini gives an Oscar worthy performance here as well. I like the fact that Gandolfini decided to step out of his typical tough guy role to play a character who had a lot of heart and emotion was nice to see. This was a real turn for him. Many people know Gandolfini from "The Sopranos" and I am happy to say this role is a complete opposite from that. In this role, he is a very troubled character with a complex background. His performance is very dramatic, heartfelt, and powerful. When he argues with either Stewart or Leo in the film, you truly believe the raw emotion that is being displayed. Stewart and Gandolfini play off one another like pros in the film. They have great chemistry. As for Melissa Leo, she was also great in the film, she did a great job playing a wife who was damaged. When Stewart and Leo were together on screen their chemistry was amazing. As I said earlier in the review, the three lead roles were terrific! Director Jake Scott did a great job on this film. This was his first film since 1999 and he really hit this one out of the park. He captured the raw emotion and the suffering of all these characters, not to mention the fact he captured the grunginess of New Orleans. The direction of the film was great and there are several memorable scenes in this film including one scene with Melissa Leo's character Lois trying to drive her car for the first time in several years.

Ken Hixon was in charge of writing the screenplay for "Rileys" and I have to give him some credit points here. Some might say the the dialog was too over the top for him but I think that really shows how uneducated and the lack of respect Stewart's character had. I think it made it much more believable to a way that someone who had that background would speak. I also think the character development in the script was on point. The characters had the perfect amount of background to not make them interesting and not clichéd.

At the end of the day, "Welcome to the Rileys" almost lived up to all the hype surrounding it. I basically went to see the film for the performance by Stewart and Gandolfini and those definitely did not disappoint. The film, itself had good character development, good performances, was raw and gritty, and had a decent storyline. The ending wasn't perfect but it fit the bill in order to not be a typical clichéd movie. Its definitely holding a spot on my top 10 of the year even though it isn't near the top. The film is worthy of admission and I can definitely see this film getting some attention come Oscar season for the performances. If you are a fan of Stewart or of Gandolfini, this is a definitely a must see as well as those who appreciate a realistic dramatic film.

MovieManMenzel's final rating for "Welcome to the Rileys" is a solid 8 out of 10.

Poor Kristen Stewart hasn't had an easy ride in the popular press. First she's constantly linked with - the pretty one-dimensional - Bella Swann from the Twilight franchise and then she gets her love-life in a tangle and everyone takes R-Patz' side.

Somewhere, amid the mess of her personal life, she got round to making 'Welcome to the Riley's,' with Sopranos star James Gandolfini. Sadly, not enough people seemed to notice. It was an 'indie' film that never really got much of a mainstream release, therefore she remained 'Bella' in the press' eyes all the way through this.

However, if you can give her a chance, you may get more than an hour and a half of her holding her mouth open and refusing to smile. James Gandolfini gives a - naturally - great performance as a man who had lost his teenage daughter in a car accident. On a work trip he gives his colleagues the slip and takes refuge in a strip club where he meets Kristen Stewart, who he beings a - plutonic - relationship with, treating her like a surrogate daughter.

That's about it as far as the plot goes. At first (the beginning twenty minutes) I was pretty disinterested and was wondering what I got into. However, I was very pleased with how it transpired. It's actually quite a tender story of emotionally damaged people coming together.

It's certainly not a laugh a minute and is the sort of film that you have to be in quite a deep, reflective, thoughtful mood to really appreciate (or just want to see Kristen Stewart not surrounded by computer generated monsters).

Nice film. Give it a try.

This independent film "Welcome to the Rileys" is one when you watch you will feel gritty and touched and see that life is full of heartache, pain and it's very complex for some and the cast is an all star lineup featuring James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, and Melissa Leo.

Gandolfini("The Sopranos")is Doug Riley a married man who's a humble guy yet inside he's a torched soul as he stills feels the pain and sorrow of losing his teenage daughter. And Doug decides to take a business trip from Indiana to New Orleans to get away for some pondering from his sweet yet neurotic and nervous ridden wife Lois(the great Melissa Leo). And upon arriving in the big easy he meets in a club a young exotic dancer named Mallory(Kristen Stewart). And Mallory has more problems than just being a stripper she's a messed up and foul mouthed little girl who needs direction.

And ironically Doug fills the void in his heart by feeling sorry for Mallory as he ventures to her rundown apartment and slowly yet surely he takes her under his wing. Doug even starts to fix things up and stay right with her this is love attachment not of the erotic kind. It's like this guy with daddy issues has solved his complex life and bleeding heart with a new love as this takes away the pain of his lost daughter. And finally when Lois journeys down to the big easy she sees that them being with Mallory was not meant.

Overall pretty good picture of emotional attachment and love still it proves that some connections were not meant to be still if you show a troubled heart love then hope and a new journey is possible.

In Indianapolis, Douglas Lloyd 'Doug' Riley (James Gandolfini) and Lois Riley (Melissa Leo) are a estranged couple married for almost thirty years that grieves the loss of their fifteen year-old daughter Emily. Doug is a well succeeded businessman in plumbing business that likes to play poker every Thursday with his friend and to meet his mistress, the waitress Vivian (Eisa Davis), after the game. Lois is agoraphobic, takes many pills and does not have sex with Doug.

When Vivian unexpectedly has a heart attack and dies, Doug goes to the cemetery and finds a tombstone that Lois has ordered with her and his names. This is the last straw in their relationship and Doug travels to a plumbing conference in New Orleans feeling lost. Doug is wandering on the streets and stumbles with a nightclub. The young stripper and prostitute Mallory (Kristen Stewart) invites Doug to a private lap dance and when he see his acquaintances from the conference in the nightclub, he accepts her invitation to hide from them but he does not have sex with the teenager. There is an incident but then he takes Mallory home and decides to stay in her derelict house to help her. Doug calls Lois and tells to her that he would stay in New Orleans for a while. Lois decides to drive to New Orleans in Doug's car and he introduces her to Mallory, whose real name is Allison. The couple projects Emily in Allison, but is there still hope or is it too late for Allison and themselves?

"Welcome to the Rileys" is a family drama supported by the magnificent Kristen Stewart, James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo. Kristen Stewart is an actress that seems to be tailored to indie movies. The screenplay discloses the past events that have separated Doug and Lois to the viewer piece by piece. The story could have been of second chance in life and redemption, but the writer Ken Hixon chooses a more realistic conclusion but leaving some hope. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Corações Perdidos" ("Lost Hearts")