The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie

I don't know the actors well, and only caught this film by accident. I thought it was very good. I never cry at movies, but this one choked me up at the end.

I disagree with somebody's comment about the mother and father's acting. I thought they were remarkably realistic. I have met people just like them!!!

And I didn't think Kevin Zeggers did that bad of a job.

The only person that I think was completely cast wrong was the "tough-guy" at the school. He looked a little too clean cut to be a bad boy. It was like watching Mr. Rogers trying to do a psycho role.

I gave it 8 stars. Not a block buster, but definitely worth a viewing.

This is one of those films that you say to yourself, "Wow!.... What an emotionally satisfying film!". It is definitely filled with great emotional highs and lows.

While the performances were very good in general (Especially Gena Rolands!). Kevin Zegers(Charlie) came up a bit short.

The Romantic Quality of the screenplay all be it a bit mushy,is exactly the quality that I think you should come away with. It gave me tears in my eyes. It has a certain spiritual undertone as well. It makes one think about how our weaknesses can be our strength.

All and All I'd give it a score of 7.5 out of 10.

At the beginning of this movie we meet Charlie, a hot headed teen who is constantly fighting at school. His home life is miserable. His father is an equal hot head who argues constantly with his mother driving her to drink. To make matters worse he's just fallen in with a group of troublemakers. He gets blamed when one of his friends steals a purse. The principal, played by James Caan, agrees not to suspend him if he works off his debt to the purse's owner, Mrs. Ritchie (Gina Rowlands).

Mrs. Ritchie proceeds to teach Charlie about living and caring for each other.

The movie start out poorly. The setup of Charlie's character is painful and the scenes with his friends cliché and over dramatized.

However, when Gina Rowlands appears on the screen as Mrs. Ritchie the movie takes a wonderful turn. Mrs. Ritchie is offbeat and colorful; her zeal for life intoxicating.

Don't let the start of the movie keep you from enjoying a delightful and uplifting film.

Charlie (Kevin Zegers) is a troubled teen fighting all the time and getting kicked out of several schools. His home life is a mess. His father (David Schofield) is an angry bully. His mother (Leslie Hope) is also troubled. Juvenile delinquent Lawrence (Justin Chatwin) befriends Charlie and steals a purse but Charlie is the one who gets caught. The principal (James Caan) offers Charlie a job to help Mrs Ritchie (Gena Rowlands) and her two Down Syndrome sons or else get expelled.

This is a nice story written by Paul Johansson. It has a nice poetic touch in some of the twists and reveals. He isn't as good as a director. The style is limited to a TV movie feel. My biggest problem is with lead actor Kevin Zegers. He doesn't bring anything special to the role and he also looks too old. I wonder if Justin Chatwin is a better fit although he's even older. At least, he does that grumpy teen character very well. James Caan is in the movie but his skills are needed more in the important father character. Then there is the one and only great Gena Rowlands. She makes this look easy. It could have been a run-of-the-mill Lifetime movie if not for her.

this movie was amazing, and Kevin Zegers made it 132843723094 times better. he is the only reason i knew about this movie, but i did end up liking it. yeah i have and obsession with Kevin Zegers. Justin Chatwin is also hot but he's hotter in war of the worlds.The incredible Mrs Rithie was touching.that sounds super nerdy( and so did that).i hated the dad, and the sister. what the heck was she wearing. but i guess that doesn't matter. Well the movie was really good and definitely worth watching. I'm only writing this much because it says it has to be ten lines of text. just so everyone knows. yeah i'm retarded. omg one more line, i serously am confused. because I've seen other ppls shorter comments.