Well this film I think is more about sighing than laughing...
Saw the preview of this long ago, in a lifetime before kids, and back then thought that my wife and I would enjoy this film. Finally watched it recently and for me the film held up its part of the bargain.
I think some of the disappointment for this film is a bit heavy-handed for a very indie film from a first-time director. The film is somewhere between quaint and cute, and there is a time and place for that, no? The french version of Cupid was a bit trying on my nerves, but absolutely essential...and even he is given his epiphany, as are the male and female romantic interests, the initially wrongly-aimed arrows of love. They are both exotic on the outside, but all too familiar. It may be that the mute uncle says the most, but then less is often more.
Still, I think for many this film will have an appeal, as many people feel that they are on the wrong track of the wrong life at times. Having the male as the demure one also should have made this more appealing to my wife, but for some reason she did not get caught up in the film. I thought he was exceptionally well cast, and while he's probably nowhere near that awkward in real life, he certainly tapped into a neurosis as old as the Euphrates.
The Walter Mitty fantasies that George/Jorge uses for his form of losing himself worked less as comedy for me, but more as an underscoring of George's lack of ownership of his own life.
Many of the films loose ends were nicely tied together, and using Niagara Falls as the climactic setting, was a crucial cliché. Taking the plunge was well paralleled.
I see the next film from this director had him working with Dustin Hoffman, I'll check it out hopefully. But perhaps director/writer Joel Hopkins was not the indie wunderkind (or wunderBrit) I suspected. As mentioned in another review, he did license "Instant Karma" for a pivotal scene (and the words worked quite well I thought...).
Anyways that film looks like it touches on the despair and redemption of love too, so I'll try to entice my wife to watch that with me.
6.5/10 Thurston Hunger
