10 Things We Should Do Before We Break Up

Undecided over this film. It's a great story line except the ending is very abrupt. When the end titles were rolling I was left asking was that it. In one way I can say it's not your typical film where everything has a happy ever after ending but it just left me wanting to know more.

I did have to force myself to watch the first 10 minutes and after that I couldn't turn it off.

At no point in the movie do you feel anything for the characters, and you don't believe they feel anything for eachother. everyone is so cold towards everyone else. lines they say seem to be like someone throwing bricks on the pile, hoping they make up something resembling the wall. everything that happens happens too fast, for no reason, no one's motivation is clear, it looks like someone had cut scenes from bunch of movies, and managed to combined them into something that sort of resembles coherent story if you ignore all the grating gaps. it's sad to have talented actors waste time on nonsense such as this

The gods of alphabetical Sky movie watching decided that "10 Things We Should Do Before We Break Up" should be the next film I watch. A romantic comedy(-ish) starring Christina Ricci and Hamish Linklater.

Abigail (Christina Ricci) meets Benjamin (Hamish Linklater) on a blind date and despite both their acknowledgements that their relationship wouldn't work, a fact they detail at length on their first date, they spend the night together and Abigail becomes pregnant. Abigail already has two children from her first marriage and is unwilling to allow the childish and petulant Benjamin any further into her life, but eventually she relents and tries to manage their unusual backwards relationship.

So, I put comedy in the opening paragraph, but I'm not sure that's really right. There are romantic elements, and there's the capacity for a few of the scenes to be charming or humorous, but it's not really a comedy. It might have been, if for a small tonal shift in the Benjamin character, but really he's just too awful to be considered a comedic character. Self-sabotaging his relationship as he bumbles through a failed life, acting as if calling himself on his behaviour is in any way comparable to dealing with it. Ricci's performance alongside him is fine, if occasionally a little unlikely that she'd tolerate some of the earlier behaviour prior to it coming to a head. Overall, it's a reasonable, if slightly dull indie drama.

But there also are several bizarre scenes with Abigail's best friend that feel like coded lectures on anti-abortion themes, so much so I wondered if this was a Christian movie at one point during them.

Started ok, bit of a chick flick. However, about two thirds of the way through it massively heads downhill! Everything goes pear shaped... or does it? Who knows? I couldn't work it out and couldn't be bothered to try. It was like they ran out of money and ideas on how to finish it, so they just didn't bother!

It seems many negative reviews are here because viewers wanted it to be a different kind of movie. Taken for what it is my wife and I found it worthwhile. Not great but worthwhile. Probably a 6 of 10 rating.

The two main characters, each near 40, arrange to meet at a bar, he has a girlfriend, she is single with two kids, a boy and a girl about 7 and 9 respectively. They get along OK but drink too much that initial meeting and not long after she finds out she is pregnant. Much of the story is "what to do?"

To me it plays on a concept that I learned back when my wife and I started dating, you really need to give a new relationship four seasons, a year at least, to see if you are genuinely compatible. Things will happen, holidays will come and go, through the process each will discover the true other (hopefully). We dated almost 2 1/2 years and last month we celebrated our 30th anniversary. We knew what we were getting into back in 1992.

The two in this story decide to stick together after only a few weeks and predictably it causes a number of unforeseen problems. She was already a mother with a career, she had developed responsibility, he was somewhat the opposite.

We enjoyed it for the relationship issues, we watched it at home on Amazon streaming.