Flipped (review)

I think you may have meant "isn't" a vampire... Thank you for taking the time to review this, I'll definitely check it out. You would think that many midwestern families would love a film like this, the content seems conservative but the structure is progressive. As you say, there seems to be an overabundance of the opposite - movies with extreme, outrageous, in-your-face, lip-service progressive content, draped lazily across painfully conservative and status-quo structures. Maybe it will do well on DVD.

Doh, I just saw the Neither, disregard that "isn't" suggestion...

I meant conservative in the non-political sense of "traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness." However, I did mean progressive in a political sense, so it was a poor pairing of words on my part.

I also don't like the attempts of many political conservatives to monopolize family values, which seems to suggest that other people don't love or value their families. The odd thing is that if producers really buy the "family values" stereotype of the midwest, why would they release it in only LA, Sacramento, and Austin to gauge its potential?

My guess is that you're right, and that audiences everywhere have been conditioned to go to the movies for big roller-coaster experiences, CGI kids' shows, or "adult" rom-coms. Even if there was a big marketing push and they released the movie wide, I suspect it would do poorly. Doesn't mean I wouldn't still like to see them try though... it's exactly the kind of movie that the parents here in the midwest always say they wish they saw more of. If it was given a chance and word of mouth caught on, and the movie system actually let movies hang around for more than a couple weeks to take adavantage of word of mouth, maybe it would do well.

I'm sure that title's not helping either. For some reason, I keep thinking of real estate every time I see it.

Looks like it is going to 400+ screens this weekend. Not wide, but certainly a much bigger expansion than what it looked like it was going to get. I'll probably check it out next week, it looks cute.

Good news - I found a theater nearby that's playing it. Bad news - there were two other people in the theater. Ugly news - I didn't like the movie much. The premise is fine, the structure is okay, but the writing is uneven and the acting of the young male lead is poor. The movie falls into "tell not show" trap too many times, not only in the overused voiceovers but also in the "this is what I am feeling now" dialogue, The characters talk like humans about 50% of the time, the other half of the time their dialogue is ripped straight out of a cheesy Hallmark movie or a bad soap. Some of these lines may have worked well in the book, but they sound very unnatural in the film.

And once again, as is the case with almost every boy-meets-girl story I see in movies, I have absolutely no idea what the girl sees in the guy. He's got pretty eyes... that's all the justification we get. There are some things I admire about the movie, the characterization of Juli is handled well, and some of the serious scenes sound genuine (her parent's first real argument brought back some memories) - I wish I could like it more, but I can't. The screenplay needed one more merciless rewrite, and they should have coaxed a better performance out of Mr.McAuliffe whose wooden delivery and overall appearance reminded me of the blond dude in Saved by the Bell.

So, definitely a Wait for DVD for me. I felt as if the movie was talking down to the audience a little too much, and the flipped perspective gimmick didn't really add a lot of insight or interest. It would have been just as strong, if not stronger focusing only on Juli's side of the story (although a lot of this has to do with Bryce's side not being very fleshed out... maybe the book is the same way?). The young girl with her grandma seated behind me both seemed to enjoy it well enough though. Unfortunately, I can't imagine it will do very well.