Love's Second Act

My whole family watched this movie together and loved it! Jodie Sweetin absolutely lights up the screen with her megawatt smile, making it impossible not to love her. It was great to see a female character in a traditional male role. Her character Jamie's interactions with her family were heartwarming and funny, especially the sibling relationship between the two sisters. Ann Hagemann was perfect as her mother, both supportive and touchingly emotional. Kora, the theater manager, was sweet and fresh. Loved her line about Nick smelling like melted butter and boy! Great to see George Wendt too. And JP Manoux was hilarious, reminding me of Ari Gold from Entourage.

My wife and I were excited to watch this since we love Jodie Sweetin. She always seems to bring light and charm to a show. Unfortunately, this time she was saddled with a poor script and poor cast. The male lead was the first red flag as he has been in several failed productions and lacks charisma. The family absolutely ruined it. Once again, we have a ridiculous depiction of a father. He is a wise-cracking artist who resembles no father I've ever met in my life. Then there are more pointless family scenes and before you know it the movie is going nowhere and not even the lead can save this sinking ship.

There are three things I didn't like:

First, the acting. Both lead actors struggled to make any conversation feel realistic. Their interactions with each other felt like watching two kids stumble through scenes of a high school play.

Second, the writing. The dialogue felt unnatural and the plot was illogical. Why is she trying to write a film on her laptop while in a movie theatre? The movie felt light on content, almost as if they had to pad out the script to fill the run time (ex. The musical montage of people decorating gingerbread houses).

Third, the exes. My personal pet peeve with this genre of movies is romantic exes trying to get back together. I find it so much less compelling than watching a new relationship form.