Jeffrey Redmond

perennial turkey day fav, heavy on the unflinching reality. some funny moments, then lots of uncomfortable ones - kind of like in life. patricia clarkson copped on oscar nom in the best supporting actress category for her work, playing a character who's, quite frankly, not always nice. katie holmes shines quirkily in the lead. her all-movie attempts to get the thanksgiving dinner ready on time are both amusing, and anxiety-inducing... the food barely looks appetizing, but that's part of the unsettling charm of this one. loved all the surrounding apartment building tenants , too, who are just as realistically presented as everything else in the plot. I'm sure I'll plug this in again next year

With this great cast, it should be better than it is. But it's not. Inexplicable Oscar win for Jimmy Stewart, especially when considering all the other great performances he's given elsewhere. He should have won at least 4 or 5 more for much better roles. Hepburn and Grant are merely okay, in a stale, not very memorable showing, which I think is the weakest of their several movie pairings. I even liked Sylvia Scarlett better than this. Overall, good for a one-time look, but, really, there's nothing to return to on a repeat viewing, beyond, perhaps, 1 or 2 visits at the most.

I'm only giving this a three-star rating because I like Bette Davis in it. Everyone else is just so-so, although the old-timer playing the grandpa is a pip. Bogie, in one of his first major roles, seems a bit over-reaching as the bad guy. (it's like he's trying too hard to be tough.) However, the real cement block sinking this whole experience is the dialogue that Leslie Howard keeps spouting. It becomes very grating after a while, to the point you can't wait for the predictable conclusion. Kind of disappointing, as it starts out pretty well, too, but halfway through the story, things fall apart, and I found myself not really caring for anyone on screen. I really like old black and white movies, but some of them don't hold up that greatly, and this is one prime example of that. Overall, Howard will get on your nerves the more he speaks, when Bogart isn't busy over-doing the whole gangster bit... until everything just feels rather pointless. Try Key Largo instead. It had basically the same plot but was executed 600 times better than this.

i can't get over how bad this movie is. there is NO momentum to anything. it's as dead as the main character's behavior. i get that she's numb on grief but the things she does and gets away with are inexplicable, and no one reacts to them in any credible, realistic way, which means she's not held accountable for any of it. the meandering confusing half-done screenplay gallingly won an oscar too. why and how? i was expecting some kind of gritty revenge piece but i guess i missed any of the reasons why this was made and then insanely praised. a protagonist you could care less about and a cast of other characters even less appealing made me wish an asteroid had taken all of them out half-way through the picture. if this is what passes for movie-making these days, i'll stick to the stuff i grew up on, thanks. watch a well-made western instead, if the PC crowd doesn't attack you for liking them anymore.

i made it a long way into this book and couldn't go any further. it started to wear me out. lots of characters and lots and lots of talking, plus even more story telling about lots of other characters, being told by more people who don't stop talking. quite funny in spots and consistently entertaining- the title dude is a hoot and a half- but i still grew exasperated and couldn't go on. finally i gave up on it altogether, which i don't like doing, being an english major from many a year back, but ugh- some serious editorial pruning was needed on this thing. a real shame but also, too much of a challenge to hold my interest, and i've read more challenging books than this.