As a general rule in the movies, dysfunction is better offered as a side dish rather than a main course, accenting what’s really a story of grieving and letting go, or coming of age, or self-acceptance. Screaming, crying, acting out and mistreating others are tougher to take when they’re the primary focus instead of symptomatic of something deeper to be excavated and explored.
In this light, Another Happy Day deserves kudos of some sort for boldly putting the dysfunctional nature of its characters and the ways in which they interact up front and center like a two-hour group therapy session to nowhere. It’s like Rachel Getting Married if every character were just like Anne Hathaway’s damaged, narcissistic Kym. It’s unpleasant, shrill and exhausting — everyone’s so busy airing their own grievances no one has time to listen to anyone else’s — but it’s a genuine actors’ film anchored by some good performances, including a stand-out turn from Ellen Barkin as Lynn, the prodigal daughter who arrives home to her parents’ house in Maryland for the wedding of her oldest son Dylan (Michael Nardelli).
Lynn, we learn, has a legitimate beef with her family, though they have some with her as well. It takes time for the connections and histories of the ensemble cast of characters to make themselves clear, not just because of how complicated they are but also because each individual only compulsively picks at his or her chosen emotional scab. Lynn arrives toting her two other sons by her nebbishy second husband, the chain-smoking, black-clad…
Alessandra Ambrosio Alexis Bledel Ali Campoverdi Ali Larter Alice Dodd Alicia Keys Alicia Witt
No comments:
Post a Comment