When I was cruising for my Saturday night movie, I found this one on Netflix and then remembered how I was supposed to rent this one when I had first seen it on PSN. Remembering how the trailer made the movie seem both funny and heartwarming, like last week’s move St. Vincent, I felt like I could do another funny and heartwarming movie. With a star studded cast, I had hoped that it would be spectacular in a Valentine’s Day kind of way.
The movie is about a cast of different characters, ranging from a woman who found out that her mother isn’t actually her mother but her grandmother, a woman looking for her real mother after her friend gets sick, a woman who no longer talks to her mother because she doesn’t like her husband, and a woman who is struggling with deciding if she’s going to become a mother or not. Like I said, it had that Valentine’s Day quality, but unfortunately it played out a lot more like New Year’s Eve. In the beginning the story switches around so fast that you’re not even sure who the hell is who moving from one woman to the next not even really allowing you to learn anything about these women. You get the basis of the main story, but that’s about it. There’s no real connection to any of these characters because this movie tried to jam as much content into it as possible that in an hour and a half, there is no way you’re going to get that deep connection with any of the characters.
That being said, watching this movie felt like a chore. This was mostly because you had to try and figure out what was going on. Once you got just a little bit invested in one story, it immediately switched to another. Then there was a major time jump in the movie that went through a couple of different holiday seasons really making no sense at all other than to hurry the story lines of one of the many women. I was also very disappointed that this movie was in fact not even funny at all. There was nothing humorous about this movie in the slightest. It was mostly just a drama movie that even though I didn’t enjoy that much still had me tearing up just a little bit. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not a heartless bitch. Go figure.
One of the major pulls to this movie was the star studded cast ranging from Susan Sarandon, Sharon Stone, Selma Blair, Courtney Cox, Christina Ricci, and Mira Sorveno. Unfortunately, even with cast this large and mostly talented, they couldn’t even save this movie if they tried. It seemed like they used some of the most untalented actress the most while saving their real power house actresses for short roles that didn’t enhance the movie in any way.
Overall I give this movie a 2 out of 5.
I really did not like this movie, but this could be one of those movies that just isn’t for everyone. Maybe it had to do with the fact that none of these mother/daughter relationships mirrored the one that I have with my own mother making this movie even harder for me to relate to. Or it could be the fact that the movie just tried to jam pack too much content into too little time. I could have seen this movie maybe being a little better if they had forgone one of the stories that had little screen time to begin with. Either way, if you’re looking for something with a huge ensemble cast that spans different stories then I would suggest skipping this one and re-watching Valentine’s Day.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 