Happy Birthday

Story is kind of meh but Tony Goldwyn makes it worth the watch. He brings depth and emotion that draws you in and helps you make it to the end.

Really bad movie, boring, predictable characters, poor acting. I gave up after 30 minutes

I loved this movie. I do not understand the bad reviews and the audience rating here on IMDB. I found this movie so refreshing a change from all the big budget hoopla out there. Something for we lovers of real life being depicted in film and novels. That All I Wish works to the extent that it does is a testament to its star's incredibly appealing performance, in which she seems looser onscreen than she has in years. Given the relatively rare opportunity to showcase her comedic chops, Stone more than lives up to the challenge, somehow making her character's quirkiness charming rather than irritating. Goldwyn, looking relieved to be playing something light after years of melodrama on Scandal, is also enjoyable. All the characters in this film just have chemistry as a cast. I can't get over how great the acting is in this movie and how it could be so enjoyed by such a critic of romantic comedies.

The chemistry between Sharon Stone and Tony Goldwyn works pretty well here, but I'm wondering, as other reviewers have mentioned, why first time writer and director Susan Walter chose to initially present Stone as a 46-year-old? Since Goldwyn is soon to be 58 in real life just two years her junior (as Stone is 60) , wouldn't it have been even more real and effective to start out presenting Stone's character Senna as a 56-year-old woman, who ages per the film's main premise. She is still so vivacious and beautiful that, at least in my mind, this would have enhanced the film even more.

Overall, I thought parts of this movie were charming and effective while other parts fell flat and were just not believable. Also, the characters were too surfacy for my tastes and never really developed fully. So, a mixed bag for me here and only a fair rating.

I read somewhere that the screenplay for this movie was written with a woman in her mid-twenties in mind for the lead role, and Stone was considered for the role of the mother. Stone made the argument that the story would be more interesting with a more mature woman (her) as the lead. I don't know if it's more interesting, but that certainly explains why her character is so immature and why she is best friends with a young woman almost half her age, and two times more wisdom.

There should have been some extensive re-writing to make this story more believable, and Stone's character less irritating. Come on girl, surely you know this stuff by now!

I was very impressed with the actor who played her love interest - I loved his natural energy and intelligence.