Becky Rouse

I watched it on HBO, thank goodness, so I could pause it often enough to go grab a generic popsicle or diet soda. Yes, I am not a foodie (tho I adore Top Chef), yet I feel sure I recognize what were spoda be jokes. I "got" it, I just didn't like it. It was so b.o.r.i.n.g. I always think it's a bad sign if you get near the end of the movie and wish everyone would hurry up and die so you can go lotion up your feet or throw the dog his ball 3000 times. Clever in some ways and I did laugh twice, but grindingly looonnnggg and flat.

I guess I liken this film to skipping stones. Standing along a beautiful river in a wonderful woodland setting, we look for perfect flat stones to skip repeatedly off of the surface. All of the elements of entertainment are there...setting, cast, beauty. But we are entertaining ourselves artificially with rocks that inevitably sink (that narration device and blaming "love" for so much and "you" as the wholly uninteresting player, are such examples), and the talent is also uneven. Elvis' classic songs modified at will and Hanks' accent that lapses into Gump, made me tired. When you check your watch throughout a film, it's a clue the timing and tempo are off, which is an ironically unkind to do to and for Elvis.

Wickedly funny and so engaging. I am jonesin' for the next episode!!