Standing Still

A group of college kids return four years after graduation for a wedding. It sounds clichéd, and well, it is, but the ensemble is great that I didn't mind too much. It stars 20-something actors including Colin Hanks, Ethan Embry, Adam Garcia, Amy Adams, Mena Suvari, James Van Der Beek, and Jon Abrahams. Xander Berkeley is also in it for a little bit. The film has a bunch of familiar story lines with all of the different characters, but the actors do a good job of performing it. I would have liked it more if it stayed strictly comedy though, there were some parts where it tried to go to drama and it just felt a little out of place.

But anyway, it was a nice film, I'm sure the average college kid will enjoy it. And with so many characters, the director did a good job of not making the film too crowded and unorganized.

These "slice of life", realist drama-comedies are far from my favorite genre, but as a serious movie buff, I've seen tens of them over the years, and Standing Still is right up there with the best of them.

The only flaw I can find, really, is the title, which is a bit enigmatic (not that I mind enigmas, but it's a bit out of context here). A better title would have been "Secrets", or even "Shuffle" if something less obvious was desired, as the plot is focused on an event--a wedding--that brings a wide range of people together, some unexpected, almost all with some kind of secret, and reshuffles them in various ways--often through revelations of their secrets.

Realist movies can easily become unfocused or boring--after all, that's true of most folks' lives if we were to follow them around with a video camera and expect people who don't know them to be entertained watching the results. But Standing Still manages to create suspense, tension and a healthy dose of humor while expertly weaving together a large number of threads, all while keeping things fairly firmly in realist territory and providing satisfactory resolutions. It's also emotionally satisfying and relatively "deep", often in subtle ways, all aided by the fantastic performances. Everyone says just as much with subtle body language as they do via their dialogue, and this just as often occurs in what could tend to be read as the lighter or shallower scenes.

I wanted to see far more about every one of these characters--and we could hardly call that a flaw.

Watching this film reminded me of what it was like to be sick on a Sunday and the only channel that works is Lifetime. The dialogue is lame and predictable. There is little or no authenticity to the characters emotional discoveries. Surprisingly, James VanderBeek brought a lot to his character's role but his screen time was comparable to Christopher Walken's in True Romance. It was like watching the Family Stone minus the funny improvisational parts and extending the bad Hollywood movie parts. The actors may be good on their own but the direction and writing are to blame here. They throw in a pathetic lesbian scene and other moments that wouldn't have happened if this were to take place in real life but the screen writing class told them it is what the viewers want to see. There is also little or no attempt to hide how low budget this film was made for.

It's a nice movie about a couple that is going to merry and invite their friends to spend the wedding weekend in their home. Some of these friends know each others, but others don't. It's funny to see how they all relate!

This movie is half comedy, half drama, but it's a very "smooth" and "light" film… Like other IMDb user said it's very "easy to watch"… The drama part is related to old frustrations of some characters, things unsolved from the past, but it's not too dramatic or melodramatic, no, it's a very "light drama"… The comedy parts are the funny scenes, which are very simple but effective! They aren't so many, but enough to make you laugh!

I also loved some characters: "Pockets" (played by Jon Abrahams) which is pretty funny; "Jennifer" (Lauren German) the lesbian girl; "Elise", the bride (Amy Adams), which is extremely sweet (!); and finally "Lana" (Mena Suvari), the "confused" girl…

All in all it's a nice film about love and human relationships (woman-man… and even woman-woman…)! The wedding stuff is just plot's background!

This is great movie with an awesome young cast. There are many good looking, talented, young actors, and they don't disappoint. Amy Adams and Mena Suvari are both excellent. I thought the entire cast was believable and had excellent chemistry. This movie reminded me of The Big Chill, (which I also loved), with an ensemble cast who get together years after college for a wedding. There are many interesting situations, and it is entertaining to see how the characters handle these situations. There are a few surprises, some very funny moments, and drama. It would be easy to over direct a movie like this, but that didn't happen. As a viewer, I was completely engrossed, and couldn't wait to see would develop next. The script always kept moving, and there never was a dull moment. I think this will be a big hit in the theaters.