In Our Nature

I don't usually write reviews. Felt like I had to for this one (wish I had some warning before watching it). I'll keep it brief.

Characters are bland, they don't learn anything. There's no character arc for any of them. Nothing really happens throughout, their problems never really strike any emotional chord. Many scenes feel like they might go somewhere, but they never do (just like the whole movie). Acting is uneventful, at best. Gabrielle Union is the decent one of the lot. Not a complete waste of time, though, because there's some beautiful scenery in that forest. If you feel that you can watch a movie for that alone, go ahead.

A car slowly but surely comes out of a tight parallel parking spot as it bumps each car over and over again. This opening scene foretells the movie in a nutshell.

A father and son reunite together unexpectedly for the weekend along with their significant others. Dad's a lawyer, son's a musician. The setting is an old family cabin in the woods where the past becomes present. The movie attempts to create tension between the two family members who haven't seen each other in quite awhile. Don't forget to mix in the lady's problems, one wanting to start a family, the other dealing with a sick mother (both issues barely explored). The tension between the males supposedly spills over into their female relationships.

Let the conflict resolution begin.

Brief uncomfortable silences pock marked with shouting and melodrama do not a good movie make. Shouting & melodrama by the way that comes in the form of a neat freak yelling at his son over an old messy coffee table. I found myself bored and inattentive to what were supposedly serious moments. In spite of the good acting, the story never really drew me in. Zach Gilford was the least interesting character who held his emotions in so deep it was like he didn't have any to begin with. He delivered his lines with a carefree boredom second only to my own. He didn't even try to act. John Slattery & Jena Malone did the best they could with what little good dialog they were given. I applaud their effort.

Good movies capture something personal in the audience member and try to connect to that. Unfortunately this movie resolved nothing and didn't really connect with me. To solve a problem you have to explore it, an exploration that never really took place. There's no meat on the bone, just a foundation for drama with no real emotional bite to it. The father son relationship is strained because dad thinks he's too messy. That's about as much meat you're gonna get. Neat freak dad versus grungy vegan musician son not enough of a meal for me. I cannot recommend this movie when they're clearly far superior dramas that have parallel themes.

I enjoyed it because I already expected it would be slow and pointless. Undramatic and simple, yet entertaining. A Father and son, arrive at their cottage, each with their girlfriend, thinking they'd have the cabin alone for a romantic weekend getaway, and unpleasantly surprised to find they're not alone. The two couples are at different life stages, with differing life philosophies, forced to spend a weekend together, learning about each other, with first disdain and then later mend and relationships grow. It's alright, not anything spectacular, but it's a nice, slow-paced movie, that centers around a father and son who don't really know much each other.

I actually laughed hard at the opening parking scene. I assumed it was going to be a quirky indie comedy. I was wrong. There's nothing wrong with the premise, despite how many times it's been done. A creative writer and director can always find new ways to explore this scenario. But they didn't.

I actually respect the awkward silences, because that's what you get in real life in awkward situations. In sit-coms, everyone comes up with some witty line and fills every second of air space, but in real life it's not like that.

But you have to go somewhere with the plot and either bring it to a creszendo or at least have people grow. I skipped the last half hour, so I'm not sure what happened, but I'm guessing it was a mild make-up.

The main young male character didn't seem mature enough to have a girlfriend and the girlfriend seemed too young to have a mature relationship, but I guess that actress always looks like she's 14. I found it awkward.

What did the Gabrielle Union character see in the old curmudgeonly lawyer guy anyways? Are we to assume he had another side or was she drawn in by the money and power? I guess he let out another side while smoking pot, and maybe during the last half hour I missed.

Like another reviewer said, it was enormously refreshing to see a black female character amongst all white people and no one mentions her blackness. I've never seen that before. Congrats. to Union for joining this cast away from her comfort zone.

The scenery was great and the people were real. But sometimes real can be quite boring, and this was one of those times. Skip it and don't waste your time, money, or soul. It was essentially a play outdoors, with awkward and lifeless dialogue.

In simplicity there is complexity ... that is, when there are only 4 people in a movie, you can do something to tell a story other than crash cars, or blow things up. And "In Our Nature" does that.

This is the first movie that I've seen that is brave enough and smart enough to show the problems of a man that has been saddled with a crappy father. Now ... in order to be nonpartisan, or to be fair I suppose "In Our Nature" does not make the father all bad, or rather, we do not see his badness, but we do see the effect it has on the son, and from reading some other reviews of this movie some of them rag on the son as a downer, which he is.

But the point of the movie, which I think did not get through, and that is the reason I gave it a 9 and not a ten was summed up in one of the son's lines in the movie ... to his Dad ... " you can get a new girlfriend, a new wife, a new family a new son, but I can't get a new father".

The point here is - and it is kind of hidden, but it is one of the major problems in our culture, the absence of decent men in families, in society where men are supposed to be the leaders or doers. This toxicity is what the movie is about, but the movie expertly skirts ... not pun intended, the issue.

Nothing is really resolved, what is done if you think about it is that a situation, a dynamic, is expose and highlighted. The problem is that just like in real life, the successful, or older, wiser, richer father always tends to overshadow the crippled son ... and no one really cares.

This is hard to see, hard to portray and there is not much to be done about it I suppose, but I salute this movie for having the guts and skill to be what it is, unique and brave and interesting to watch ... that is really worth a 10/10 in my book, but the 9/10 is because it was not a little bit more plain about what it was.

The character of the father's black girlfriend was really acted well by Gabrielle Union, who I really want to look up and see other stuff by her. She was great, the character was great and groundbreaking. Finally a black woman that did not have to go out of her way to pretend to be while ... or black, she just was - really excellent writing and acting. BUT, again, the perfection of the Vicki character hid the faults of the father as she was always kind of nagging him a bit. I suppose it's a fine line and one would not want to make a character unsympathetic, and I'm not a writer or playwright, so that's just my gut feeling.

All the actors were very good, the scene and location was beautiful as well, the whole movie was memorable and not just something you would only want to watch once. There is a lot to think about here. John Slattery is really a very good actor and has really progressed and done some very interesting things now that he got the chance. Zack Gilford as the son and Jenna Malone as the son's girlfriend was engaging and realistic as well.

All in all a very well made and well told story .... 9/10.