In Your Eyes (2014)

Tags

2014, Comedy, In Your Eyes, Michael Stahl-David, Movie, Romance, Science Fiction, Zoe Kazan

your hair is…in your eyes…

“You’re smart, and ain’t nothing in this world dumber than a smart guy.”

It’s like You’ve Got Mail with psychics!

In Your Eyes is a movie with a title that references a Peter Gabriel song, but does not feature said song in the movie.  What gives?  It does, however, feature many other indie songs all throughout the movie.  In fact, it uses the sentimental music montage as a bit of a crutch.  When your two lead characters are separated by almost the entire country, I guess it’s hard to create scenes of a growing love without some good ol’ montages.

The story, written by Joss Whedon, features two lonely folks, Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) and Dylan (Michael Stahl-David).  Rebecca is stuck in a loveless marriage with a controlling doctor, while Dylan is an ex-con, on parole, working at a car wash.  One day, the two suddenly gain the ability to experience the world through each other’s eyes. Why?  How?  Doesn’t really matter.  Make up your own reason.  I believe unicorns were involved.  They were both licked by unicorns.

After quickly (too quickly) adjusting to and accepting this new discovery, the two begin getting to know each other and helping each other with their problems and issues.

I certainly don’t fault this movie for having such an unexplained, fantastical premise.  But I do fault it for playing it pretty safe with how everything unfolds.  It goes pretty much exactly as you’d expect it to…at least until it becomes a borderline thriller at the end.  That felt a little out of place.

A movie with this plot could go a few different ways.  On one end of the plot spectrum, it could have been a slapstick comedy with one goofy, awkward situation after another.  Not something I’d want to see. On the opposite end of the spectrum, it could have been darker, riskier, edgier.  Maybe one of the characters could have been disabled, or they could have been different ethnicities, or heck, even if one of them wasn’t particularly attractive, that could have been something.  But no, like I said, this one plays it close to the middle on that spectrum, going for the safe romantic-comedy angle.

The leads are fine, there are some amusing moments, and even a few touching scenes, but overall it seemed like a waste of a good premise.  But hey, they do shoehorn in a car chase, so…yeah…

Ruby Sparks (2012)

Tags

Comedy, Drama, Movie, Paul Dano, Romance, Ruby Sparks, Zoe Kazan

is somebody over there trying to be quirkier than me!!??

Ah, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.  Whether it’s Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Kate Winslet, or…Zooey Deschanel, it’s a character that has become all too familiar in movies – particularly indie movies – in the past decade or so.  A quirky, unpredictable girl who brings the male protagonist to life and turns his life into a constant adventure.

In this case, it’s Zoe Kazan as Ruby Sparks, who is, quite literally, the dream girl of writer Calvin (Paul Dano).  He dreams about her, then begins writing a book about her.  Then, to his understandable surprise, one day Ruby materializes in Calvin’s kitchen, seemingly unaware that she had no existence before he dreamed her up.  At first all is wonderful and happy for the two (once Calvin comes to grips with this odd occurrence), but eventually Ruby gets bored existing for the sole purpose of making Calvin’s life better.  She’s unhappy.  So, Calvin writes more in his book, this time making her happy all the time.  Her constant joy grows tiresome, so he must write her differently.  Needless to say, these rewrites go on for a while as Calvin tries to achieve the perfect balance in Ruby.

This movie, written by star Zoe Kazan herself, takes the idea of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl and reveals why this male fantasy puts so much pressure on the girl in question.  At one point Ruby says something to Calvin about him not having any friends.  He says, “I have you. I don’t need anyone else.”  To which she responds, “that’s a lot of pressure.”  This MPDG concept puts all the onus on the girl to make a relationship exciting, with the guy just going along for the ride.  All he has to do is accept her for who she is.  “I love your mess,” Calvin says at one point.

This whole idea was explored to a similar extent in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  That’s another character, Joel, who simply wants to go along for the ride with Clementine, and she lets him tag along because he’s nice and accepts her manic ways.  Though, only for a while, until she gets bored with his lack of emotional intimacy.

The performances are all good enough, including smaller roles featuring Annette Benning, Antonio Banderas, and Elliott Gould.  Though, I feel like the concept/story succeeds more entirely than the execution of it.  It drags a little at times, and that ending wasn’t so hot…

7.8/10

I Hate Valentine’s Day (2009)

Tags

Amir Arison, Comedy, Gary Wilmes, I Hate Valentine's Day, John Corbett, Movie, Nia Vardalos, Rachel Dratch, Romance, Stephen Guarino, Zoe Kazan

oh no...you didn't actually watch I Hate Valentine's Day, did you? oh gosh...

PG-13

Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Stephen Guarino, Amir Arison, Zoe Kazan, Gary Wilmes, Rachel Dratch

John: That’s dumb.  Soap can’t get dirty!
Dan: If mud fell on it…
Brian: No, it would wash right off.
Kathy: Wouldn’t the mud be declared clean on impact?
John: Right, it’s soap.  The word means clean!

Genevieve (Vardalos) loves the romantic part of relationships, but not the long term portion where feelings begin to wear off and things go wrong.  So, she’s devised a system in which she only goes on 5 dates with a man before breaking up with him.  She starts to question her own system after meeting and dating Greg (Corbett).

Ugh.  Just stop it movie makers, okay?  I mean, really, are there actual humans like this in the world (outside of a mental institution [no offense intended by that comment])?  Genevieve really does seem like she’s got some sort of personality disorder for most of the movie.  She walks around with a lifeless smile, like a Stepford Wife.  It’s downright creepy.  It’s hard to see any reason why Greg would be interested in her at all.  Also, it takes Genevieve the better part of her life to realize something that a viewer of the movie can see in about 2 minutes.  That is that her dating method is just overcompensation for fear of being hurt.

But I’ve already talked too much about this one.  It’s just not worth it.  Just another unfunny, unromantic comedy churned out by the Hollywood machine.  Though, actually, this one isn’t even from the Hollywood machine, it just seems like it wants to be.  It’s more independent than that, written and directed by Vardalos, but it sure feels like a standard big studio production.

I will mention that Zoe Kazan is really the only good thing (aside from John Corbett’s likability) this one has going for it, and she’s barely in it.

Comedies should have more than just two somewhat funny moments in them.  Just thought I’d point that out to the writers of the world…

Umm…don’t watch stupid movies anymore?  I dunno…

10 – 3 for not being funny – 2 for the leads having little or no chemistry – .7 for Vardalos being kinda creepy most of the movie – .3 for some other annoying characters = 4.0