Retour à Woodstock

Reading the other reviews for this, I have to smile ruefully. Saying a film has absolutely zero merit is completely understandable - expected - with soulless box office cash cows. I mean, it isn't really - considering people have toiled tirelessly and put in insane hours to create it, and at least one person in the cast is probably insanely invested in it and will cry their little heart out when they read the reviews - but it's understandable. Because it's just a product.

When it comes to little hopeful offerings like this one - an idea some budding director has probably had for years, worked so hard to get made, and probably never expected it to - it's not only a little cruel but stupid.

Because you can tell the director of this little film, Rita Merson, cared a lot about making it. "I watched 'Pretty Woman' and it was all over," says Merson. "I became a connoisseur of the romcom."

She made this with a recently broken heart. That went into the making of this film. As cliché as it is, getting your heart broken is still one of the most intense, multi-layered and transformative experiences of grief and longing in existence. So, no. I have a heart, and that automatically makes this film something to me.

That doesn't mean it's a very good film. It doesn't pretend to be. It's warm, strange, neurotic and often desperate, but it doesn't try to make any great Statement about love and music and self-discovery. It does what you want a little romcom to do - tell a story and make you laugh and feel things. And it does that just fine.

I was sometimes frustrated watching it. It was light. Sometimes frothy. The subject matter, under the hand of a more indie director who takes themselves a little too seriously, could have given something a little more raw and meaningful.

But this was sweet. The lead actress was wonderful to watch, very different. Her neuroticism, meant to make you fall a bit in love with her, worked. She wasn't too adorable. I liked her, and her voice, if it's hers, and forgave her for seeming to know absolutely nothing about music or authenticity.

Sometimes the dialogue was hilarious. Never inspired, never Nora Ephron, but original and laugh-out-loud. Almost every encounter with the doctor, who wasn't bad himself.

I'm just saying. It had a heart. It made me feel things. It was fun. It was warm and sparky. It cheered me up. And her voice is very good.

So thanks, Rita Merson.

The acting is in the exaggerated style of live stage, high school level. It could be a good story. C'mon actors, you can do better. Who directed this? Isn't the director supposed to direct? The opening scene in the bedroom: tacky, gratuitous, unnecessary; did the director feel the plot and story were so lacking that she had to resort to that?

45 minutes in, kept watching hoping it might get better, the acting got better.

First off, let me say that chances are you have already seen a good version of this movie. The film can be summed up by the following: A struggling writer who is in a bad relationship gets a chance at love. Does that sound familiar? Well, it should because those are the plot points from at least a dozen different movies (The Hanna Montana, Movie, Begin Again, Pitch Perfect, Pitch Perfect II, A Star is Born, How To Be Single, etc.) However, that isn't the problem. The problem is this movie has no upside to it. The main character is annoying and an awful person. The love story is forced and undercut by a lousy protagonist. And the side characters are all bland. The music is okay but nothing special. Also, the film claims to have Brittany Snow in it. However, she literally only in it for the first 5 minutes, which is a shame because it was cool to see her act against her normal type of character as the whacked-out D.J. I wouldn't even consider it a Brittany snow movie since she is in it so little. They must have just hoped that her name would be enough to get people to watch, and sadly it did. But don't make my mistake. Save yourself. Watch her scene on YouTube and call it good.

Catherine Brown (Allison Miller) is stuck in her life which has her silently screaming. She has long abandoned her dreams of singing. She lost her parents early in life. Her boyfriend Garret (Jason Ritter) is a self-obsessed actor. She hates her job as a musician rep and then is forced to wrangle hard-partying Jody Sinclair (Brittany Snow). When Jody accuses her of assault, she gets fired. She comes home early to find Garret cheating on her. She's sleeping on her friend Ryan's couch. She decides to go upstate to live in her childhood home in rural Woodstock. Emily (Rumer Willis) is the tough local bartender and Noah Bernstein (James Wolk) is the cute doctor. On the drunken first night at the bar, she proclaims her love to Noah. Coffee shop owner Lee Ann (Katey Sagal) nurtures her music dreams.

Miller and Wolk are a perfectly cute rom-com couple. They are both photogenic and sweet-natured although they are more like sidekick material. I want to like this very much for them. This is director Rita Merson's debut. The newcomer doesn't have all the skills to make this work. The timing is not there. The jokes are lacking. I'm surprised at the number of solid actors in the cast. Even the minor roles have familiar names. It doesn't make this good and may actually hinder the small town feel needed for Woodstock. It feels like Hollywood trying to pretend to be small town. The same can be said of the record company. It's some kind of Hollywood facsimile of a record company from the recent past. A lot of this movie falls flat despite my desire to root for the couple. Even at its best, this is a formulaic rom-com. It's not until Forever Sex when I finally get my first laugh. I still don't understand Emily's motive. This tries to be a fun quirky rom-com. It tries.

A good idea (altough not original) that could have resulted in a good film. But unfortunately it's not the case. So sad, because the plot has some potential.

It's hard to go along with a character when you simply don't care about him/her. Not that the actress is bad, but I think the problem here is poor scripting/directing. The locations are cute, photography is correct, the songs are OK and the film has it's charm, but it can't help feeling somewhat undone or poorly done, at least.

Not the worst film in the world like some people here say, but not a good one for sure. Sadly, the premise could have resulted in a much better work since there's a heart here.