Hurricane season begins? Psychology therapist returns from vacation? Therapy group takes its end crawl? We fall in love and finally become committed to a lasting relationship (hopefully)? We are able to accept and understand our limitations and fears and move on to more fulfilling lives? Answer: All of the above.
'See You in September' is not a heartbreaking, tearful drama, but an even paced, nicely written story about regular people like you and me, each with their fears, problems and woes, that spell, unfortunately in these cases, disaster in having, keeping, or beginning relationships conducive to love and marriage. The plot was nice, and I admit becoming interested in it because of the theme, which reminded me of something in that 1990's movie "What About Bob?", when Bill Murray's character falls apart when his therapist (played by Richard Dreyfuss), takes off on his month long vacation and leaves his patient to fend by himself. The results in that one were hilarious. In this one, the heroine decides to do something about it, not by taking off to stalk her therapist (loved seeing Whoopi Goldberg in this short performance), like Bob did, but by putting out an ad on Craigslist for other affected parties to come together and vent their problems. Well, you'll have to see the results for yourself and decide. One thing for sure: it takes a jab at psycho analytical therapists and you ask yourself why we need them, when solutions are better obtained and understood by discussing things together and standing up to do what is right.
I'm a therapist myself. Far from giving people a crutch to hold on to or an escape route to solve their problems, I stress the same lesson this movie teaches: the answers are within ourselves. We just have to know how to find them, which is where good therapy comes in. I found this story, despite not being the best one I've seen, did the job well, despite its shortcomings.
Of course, this is a movie. Things tend to work out magically in movies, not so easily in real life, right? But as this review is about the movie, and not the logistics of the storyline, what I can truthfully say is that it was a nice 90 minute interlude with what we all know can happen if we give it a chance.
The acting, however, was not the best, on the part of some. I couldn't help notice that some parts were believable enough, but the rest were a letdown. The film, then, felt unbalanced: strong and nicely done on the one hand, weak and even a bit boring on the other. Justin Kirk stands out here. Kirk's character as the bitter-sweet A.J. made me laugh and caught me off guard more than once, but I liked the way he portrayed the man who is not looking for perfection, but nevertheless, was the perfect man for Lindsay despite being part of a therapy group himself. She didn't believe in committing, he thought all women were blood-suckers...but what was the real story? You'll have to watch and find out.
Putting it all together, then, a nice, clean movie, no sex scenes, and few cusswords except when making a point. Considering the horrid releases I've seen lately, this one was not a waste of time.
