bringbackberniew

That when Scarlett Jo introduced her guy to the neighbor, she said "This is Mr. Harris." As in Bob Harris, maybe?

Anyway, I expected something between Manhattan and a rom-com, so imagine my surprise when I got this plot. Then, imagine my surprise when I came to imdb and saw it has a high rating. I guess this film somehow avoids the "Let's just bash Woody Allen". The first 60% is quite good. It is slow, but somewhere along the line of what I expected: romantic relationships, lots of oh-so-educated chat / banter, stylish sets and a good tour of metro London. It starts to seriously strain credibility when Mr. Up From the Gutter Tennis Pro turns into Mr. Type-A Investment Banker so easily, but, you know, let's just pretend that it doesn't really take any skill or education to be an investment banker. There, "we" feel better about ourselves now.

Credibility goes completely out the window in the last 20% of the film, or maybe I just had to accept that I wasn't watching a Woody rom-com, I was watching "London Psycho". He even gave someone his biz card and someone ogled it, nod to the scene in American Psycho. Now if only they had some Huey Newton in the soundtrack.

This is the 5th or 6th TV show that I never watched when it was originally broadcast, but I have now streamed a bunch of the top-rated episodes. In all of them, and especially in the "crime drama" series, there are one or two episodes that got top ratings even though they're average at best. This is THAT ONE for The Mentalist. There are a few goofy characters thrown in. Why? No good reason. There are a few wild contrivances required to wrap it up, and still, the end of this episode seems like it could use a re-edit.

And then, there is the female psychic. Since I don't watch every episode, I didn't know who she was at first, but it wasn't hard to figure out. Did they bring her in for potential rom-com material or was it simply to fill a quota of having more women in the cast? Either way, she is a terrible distraction, and the sooner they dump her, the better.

And the rest (esp acting and dialog) drag it down. The story starts slow, and violent. It remains slow, but it is original in its details, praiseworthy clever and snappy enough. At a time when Hackneyedwood makes mainly remakes, superhero, mutant and agenda-driven films, this is a big breath of fresh air.

Conversely, the dialog is mostly lousy, though some of the humor works. But only some, most of it does not. The acting is even worse. I am a big T Fey fan, but she is awful in this. She just isn't much of an actress when she is not being her own funny self. She tried a few times, but it absolutely looked like her heart wasn't even in this one. NOTE: this was being filmed very close to where Rust was being filmed when Baldwin had his mishap with the gun. She and Baldwin are great friends. It is totally believable that she, in fact, was hugely depressed during the latter half of filming here.

People keep talking about Fargo. Sure, there is that here, but I got a Raising Arizona buzz off this due to the geography (definitely not snowy ND) and the appearance of the killer. Look at him. Remember the guy in Raising Arizona? That had to be on purpose.

Summary, I am being generous with a "6", but let's support original, story-driven film, not corporate, agenda-driven crap.