Juanita

I'm surprised more people haven't remarked on the extraordinarily bad editing and continuity in this film.

I liked the story and I really wanted to like the film as well. But the editing was really sloppy. At one point there is a static shot of Juanita outside the Paper Moon with her bags packed that's only shown for a second or two. I didn't know what to make of that, as it's completely out of context, until I started to realize that the rest of the film suffered from the same sort of ham-handed editing.

There are a lot of bad reviews of this movie. I have no idea why because I loved it. I would normally not watch a movie like this, but there was a frankness in the faces in the preview that appealed to me. Juanita is an amazing actress. I thought everyone was well cast. There was an edginess to all the characters that added a lot of sparkle to the film.

It dealt with some very complex issues that need to be spoken about: Single mothers, why young men go to prison, PTSD, parenting, getting stuck in a dead end jobs, American Indians and their diminishing culture. I mean these are huge topics, and they were dealt with very compassionately. But it wasn't preachy. It is basically mid life crisis tied to a love story.

I teared up a couple of times, and it takes a darn good movie to make me do that. Don't miss this one.

Loved the idea but just didn't work. Some of the supporting actors were just not up for the task. Needed better direction but I never found it boring!

Juanita was such a missed opportunity. It has all the right elements: a great cast, an interesting plot and lots of possibilities for story direction. Instead, it is a rushed, chopped and hurried mess. Juanita should have been a mini-series. This story is about transformation- not just for Juanita; but for all the people she meets on her journey as well. How fun and emotionally satisfying it would have been to be able to spend a little more time with these characters and take the journey with them!

Juanita (Alfre Woodward) is stuck in a rut: her grown-up kids are serious wasters and her husband is long gone, leaving just her imagination and the elderly patients she nurses for company. When one patient dies, she takes the decision to change her life completely by buying a one way Greyhound ticket to nowhere - well nowhere she's ever actually heard of anyway. She finally lands in a hamlet called Paper Moon and is instantly pressed into service cooking for a Native American at his struggling and theoretically French restaurant.

This story perhaps works better as a novel. The pace is slow and the plot holds few surprises. As another reviewer says here, the movie lacks oomph. Everything is competent - nothing is special. At times it's quite funny and at times uplifting, but never exactly exciting. 6/10