The Oranges

¨I'm your ex girlfriend's boyfriend's wife.¨

I'd rather sit through an hour long episode of Dr. House, The OC, or Gossip Girl rather than watch this film starring some of the actors from the above mentioned series. The Oranges was directed by Julian Farino, who I had never heard of before this film. I actually went to see this film because I thought it had an interesting cast. The biggest flaw of The Oranges was its screenplay; written by Ian Helfer and Jay Reiss. The dramedy never quite manages to feel authentic and everything felt like a complete farce. The dialogue in this film felt very light considering the subject matter and the comedic moments weren't effective. The relationships didn't feel real either, although I must admit that the friendship between Laurie's character and Platt's was probably the strongest thing about this movie. Beside the three TV stars: Hugh Laurie, Leighton Meester, and Adam Brody, the film also stars Allison Janney and Catherine Keener whom I always thought looked very much alike. These are all very likable actors, but they were given some really underdeveloped characters and the film never really rang true to me. Other films have tackled this subject matter in much better ways. Examples that come to mind for me are The Graduate and American Beauty, but this movie doesn't even come close to what those films achieved. Despite how much I wanted to like this movie because of the actors, I had a hard time watching this. I would pick any of their television series over this film anytime.

The film focuses on the relationship between two Jersey families. On the one hand, we have David (Hugh Laurie) and Paige Walling (Catherine Keener) who have two children: Vanessa (Alia Shawkat) and Toby (Adam Brody), and then we are introduced to their neighbors, the Ostroff's, consisting of Terry (Oliver Platt) and Carol (Allison Janney). Terry and David have been best friends for a long time, and their families get together often. The Ostroff's have a daughter named Nina (Leighton Meester) who decides to return home after five years for the Holidays. Her presence will change things when she falls in love with David. The two begin seeing each other and it has a tremendous effect on both families. Nina convinces David that there are no rules to happiness, but at the same time his decision affects everyone around him. When Paige finds out about this relationship she confronts David and soon everyone's life is affected by this relationship.

The film doesn't seem to take sides on the moral issue, but it doesn't ever feel like it takes things seriously either. The entire film felt like a complete waste of time. The relationship between David and Nina never felt authentic and there was no chemistry whatsoever between them. The film really suffers from a poor script and the likable actors aren't enough to save this film. The narration of the film didn't work for me either and I felt like it was simply used to simplify things. The question the film seems to be raising is whether it is really worth doing whatever makes you happy without measuring the consequences and how it can affect the rest of the people around you. At first it seems as if it agrees with this premise, but later their consequences catch up with them. Some characters seem to be better off, but things never remain the same. I think I am getting a little too philosophical for a film that really didn't take itself too seriously, but I definitely felt that something was completely off with The Oranges. It is an awkward film and one I wouldn't recommend.

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This movie is categorized as comedy, drama and romance and fails in all three IMHO. Let's start with the tag lines: there's no sex whatsoever and it's about to get juicy but it never does, reckon that according to your preferences. As a comedy it delivers few smiles and even less laughs. The drama side goes a bit better if nothing else for the ever worried look of David (Laurie), a middle aged husband who could be attractive only to girls in desperate need of a father figure.Unfortunately the drama part is also predictable and without sparkles.Finally the romance: very little dwelled upon and without any surprise. If i haven't been harsher in voting it's because of the actors' effort, in particular Alia Shawkat (perfect in the role of the incredibly obnoxious Vanessa) and Adam Brody (my favorite scene is when he's back from China and discovers the "scandal")

Not my favourite film, but I was expecting something worse, to be honest. What I saw:

An enjoyable Hugh Laurie, as usual (yet not exceptional). Funny moments, at times. Some cringe-worthy dialogues. Nice directing. Impressively realistic. Thoughtprovoking, which certainly is its strongest feature.

I guess one of the main goals of a filmmaker is to make their audience FEEL things. Well, I honestly can say they did it. Most of them were awkward and negative feelings towards the relationship between these two, but they were there. Is that what they were aiming at? I don't know. I was disgusted by them, and angry. How can you so selfishly base your every decision on whatever seems to make you happy? And by the way, what's with the meddlesome mother? Your daughter's 24 not 18. Anyway, it's only 90 minutes long. Watch it if you have some free time and nothing else worth pressing play on.

"The Oranges" centers on two families, each with mom and dad and former teenage daughter (now a twenty-something daughter), living across the street from each other in West Orange, New Jersey. It's kind of like a dysfunctional family dramedy except the families really do function normal enough and well enough prior to the beginning of the plot. And also it's a comedy. It poses some fairly serious questions but presents them all in a light-hearted, humorous fashion.

Paige Walling (Catherine Keener) and David Walling (Hugh Laurie) still have their adult daughter Vanessa (Alia Shawkat) living at home, unable to let go of some hostilities from her teenage years. Carol Ostroff (Allison Janney) and Terry Ostroff (Oliver Platt) are trying to control their daughter Nina (Leighton Meester) but she's off on the other side of the country still acting like a teenager. But after a perceived personal tragedy, Nina comes home. And then comes home Paige and David's successful son Toby (Adam Brody) who's in love with Nina.

Two individuals choose to commit, or almost commit, a morally repugnant act. The good thing is, everything is still funny. In the aftermath though, they decide that they're adults, and choose to question the line of morality. Not only is the audience not expecting that, and thus we're forced to start questioning, or stop judging, but the other characters definitely weren't prepared for it, and they start questioning the directions of their own lives. While of course keeping it funny.

Another interesting choice the film made was to make Vanessa (Shawkat) the narrator. She is not directly involved in the action, she's only involved in the repercussions, but she's also the type of character that we normally don't think about how she would be affected, but now we're forced to. The character that we would normally associate with in the aftermath is Paige (Keener) but here she puts herself on the sidelines.

The highlight of the film, of course, is the incredible cast. The reading of the credits goes something like this: Alia Shawkat – oh, yeah, the girl from Arrested Development, she has some decent comedy skills; Leighton Meester – a new Hollywood "it" girl, let's she what she's got; Hugh Laurie – he's always fun and straight from a string of well-deserved Emmy nominations; Allison Janney – awesome (!); Catherine Keener – awesome (!); Oliver Platt – really?! He's a comic genius, this is doubly awesome (!!); and Adam Brody – well, now we've just topped off a dream come true.

The best news is that the cast completely delivers. Meester and Laurie are expected to carry the majority of the film, and both do it by playing characters that they've never really played before. Laurie pulls of sympathetic so well and Meester goes a little more subtle to be able to show us what her character is thinking and show us what her character wants people to see. Janney is her usual funny self, so is Brody, while Platt is again at top form delivering some hilariously subtle facial reactions and some comic gold physical comedy.

The least famous actor of all of them, Sam Rosen, threatens to steal the whole show as Ethan, Nina's hilariously sympathetic fiancé turned ex-fiancé turned super-apologetic-ex-fiancé. He's relegated to a pretty small role, otherwise the movie would have been about Ethan. And it's not supposed to be.

Now that the highlights are all uncovered, it's time for some warnings. The plot is exceedingly simple and we have to wait for each character to catch up to it before the next turn can proceed. For those that are completely invested in each character, this won't be a problem. For those that like fewer characters, this will be a problem. Also depending on where your moral center lies, you could have a conflict with the film's decidedly ambiguous morality. For all the lines the film attempted to cross they went for a much simpler, more dramatic ending, never crossing into the dark comedy territory. That might stop it from reaching more brilliant heights, but it also keeps "The Oranges" more consistently enjoyable.

Who Might Like This: People who like dysfunctional family dramedies; anybody looking for a comedy that questions some of society's morals; fans of anybody in the main cast.

Although this film does not have a complicated plot or much depth, I thought it was fun and found myself smiling all the way through. If you are looking for a simple and amusing film this is the one for you.

The story observes many real life feelings and situations even if it does cross over into the surreal sometimes. It doesn't have the scripted feeling that so many comedies seem to fall into and keeps a jovial feeling without leaving you cringing.

I thought Hugh Laurie was brilliant as House and I have wanted to see him in other things but was put off by the rating on this film. It is never going to be an epic but it is fantastic for what it is. A true feel good movie if you are in the mood for a dose of reality and can put aside some scepticism.