The Pill

a romantic comedy. many clichés, a not complicated story, amusing, charming, nice and ...smart. without be extraordinary, it is special for the courage of director to use a delicate theme. to broke the common laws of genre and present image of deep vulnerability of ordinary people. to formulate few interesting questions. inspired spices are the French accent of Mindy family and the read books by Fred and his girl friend before the breakup. an interesting exercise and the chance for Noah Bean to do a character who remembers usual type of young man of today. the fear, the immaturity, the fragility, the impossibility of correct choice, the insecurity, all, each are a correct portrait in his good performance. Rachel Boston is perfect choice for translate the mixture between vulnerability and huge need of freedom and people. a beautiful film.

It is quite hard to connect to someone who is ... not honest to say the least. We get to learn two individuals who have fun together ... but you know that fun can become something more. Sexual intercourse is exhausting but also rewarding. Well if two individuals have either an understanding or love each other.

Sometimes love does not have to exist. But what if the woman might get pregnant? Not a good thing or something the male can live up to? It is quite the journey and quite the "mission" the male goes through. But again, how are we supposed to feel with him? On the other hand, the female has some issues too. Still she is more reliable than him - him I do not believe a word.

Maybe I'm wrong you say? Maybe so - you have to watch to find out. A low budget effort with a lot of craziness ... but a movie that is quite decent overall to say the least too. Something that cannot be said about our two main characters.

when you watch this film, you'd immediately find that the main male character's way of delivering his dialog is way too much alike woody allen in all of his movies. a constant uncertain, unsure, self-doubt, self-righteous, thinking-by-mouth blabbering, the way he talks, even the gestures, the facial expressions are all transformed into woody allen alike. his impotent way to deal with women, the relationship, the long suffering under the strong-will woman, the sudden found charm when he meets gentle kind woman, the stammering when he has to lie, to convince and to persuade, to ensure the woman he falls for are exactly like what woody allen did in all of his films, the only difference is the young guy does not have a bald head and a pair of eye glasses. the whole film is watchable but not good enough to be remembered or deemed as a great movie; pills or no pills, taking promptly or following directory.

Somebody should have taken a pill instead of giving birth to this movie. A romantic comedy needs certain ingredients to Work. 1) It needs to be romantic. 2) It needs to be funny once in a while. 3) It needs characters that that we can care about. Sadly it fails on all counts. The main character, (awful acting by the way), is to put it mildly not very likable and it remains a mystery why she fell for him in the first place. I mean the guy has 2 facial expressions. A nervous smile with lots of teeth and another that probably is supposed to look panicked. There's virtually no plot at all except his attempts to get her to take the pill. The woman does slightly better with her part. Actually showing a bit of character, but the script doesn't give her much to Work with. Waste of time !!

...I think people are doing just too much when it comes to criticizing this movie.

So what if the characters aren't likable? Well I wouldn't say "so what" because character development is important, but I think Fred and Mindy are meant to be "normal," with a quirky, indie twist. And "normally"...people do have one night stands and wind up pregnant, unfortunately. This film is a comedic perspective of real life. And it's kind of a chic, urban adventure.

I just love the roaming around New York City this film has, reminds me of...me. And I like seeing it on screen, what the hell. I also like that it's set in a summery time, so it's bright and fun and ironic to how dark this probably could be.

I mean I'd punch Fred in real life. He follows Mindy around pretending to like her just to make sure she takes both doses of a morning after pill. And why? Because he's married or in a long-term relationship. It shows two different types of New York lives: Fred is from the intellectual, upper classed part, with a self-centred, jet-setting girlfriend in a big fancy condo or studio apartment it looked like, and Mindy is on a working class budget with a black boyfriend in a small apartment in Brooklyn.

Now I have no idea why Mindy wanted to have Fred's child but based on my description it seems she wants his status through his child? I don't know. I think the director just wanted to portray girls who wind up pregnant after one night stands as bonkers and manipulative who try to pass it off as feminism. Maybe it's his version of modern city girls, as the New York backdrop was utilized a lot and very well so perhaps this setting was done intentionally, or convenient considering it's where the director lived... But it was done in a funny way, and it's a comedy! So it worked.

Anyway I hated Fred, LOVED the guy playing him. I'm not sure if it was improvising the script or what. But he was funny. Sometimes the script seemed like they were improvising with some direction on where the conversation should go, like very realistic dialogue (stuttering, petty back and forths, laughs, vulgar social commentary), so on that level to film snobs it could've looked amateur acting-wise but pretty good direction wise. But I enjoyed it because it was realistic.

The elements were great as I mentioned, the background scenery of New York City, being on the subway-train (a big must in big-city indie films for me), strutting and skipping through big crowds, going to small cafes, convenience stores and pharmacies, apartments with cute and artsy interior decoration (they used the director's apartment for Mindy's apartment), it was all so nice. Their stylish- casual wardrobe. The soundtrack was enjoyable, like atmospheric, bubbly indie music. All these things subtly but hugely make the film, for me. So it's an enjoyable watch. Albeit with flaws. I loved the last scene, I would've done the same thing as Mindy when she saw Fred if not worse.

Long story short: the only flaws, for me, was developing Mindy's character. I simply don't understand why she loved Fred so fast and intentionally had his kid but hey girls like this do exist. I also don't like Fred but I think focusing on him as a character too much is unnecessary to critiquing the film as a whole. The things I liked: the setting, Fred's script and the actor playing him, the theme (it's interesting). The pace was good. It's not a boring film at all. If you're into films just to fall in love with the characters/actors and ignore how well a film was put together or not, then this isn't for you. If you can understand the reality of character flaws but appreciate important film elements like plot, script, setting, angles, music, originality yet reality, then this is for you! :D