There need to be more movies like this one out there. Now, I have to say I like this movie for very selfish reasons; usually I like a movie because it's believable, the characters are well-written and well-acted, and if there's a nice soundtrack, but this movie was special because of its Canadian title Writers. I'd like to think I'm an aspiring writer... when I'm not busy studying, eating, sleeping, or playing Candy Crush. Regardless, I just want all of these people to be in my life, flaws and all. Also, any story about writers inspires me to go write, hence this blog post's existence. Also, when I found this on YouTube (yes, it's on YouTube, so go watch it now; there are no excuses), I felt like an idiot because a few months ago, I had looked for it EVERYWHERE, and couldn't find it. The internet is an elusive creature.
Stuck in Love is a movie tracking the intertwining but very different stories of four different family members: William Borgens, a published writer (Greg Kinnear), Erica, the ex-wife who married a younger and rather more muscular man because she's played by Jennifer Connelly so she looks like she's 10 years younger than she actually is and it's totally fine, Samantha Borgens, a college-aged, soon-to-be published writer who's a bit promiscuous (Lily Collins), and Rusty Borgens, Sam's sweet and innocent baby brother (Nat Wolff).
From the very beginning, it's pretty clear that this family has some issues. Sam, who is a "realist" and hates the idea of love, makes it very clear that she does not communicate with her mother because she feels betrayed ever since her mother left her father for another man. This dynamic in and of itself creates tension within the whole family since everyone else still somehow stays in contact with her. The dad, William, is still clearly in love with his ex-wife to the point where he takes great pleasure in watching her fight with her new husband from their window, which is a bit creepy. The runt of the family, Rusty, is still going through that unfortunate high school phase of extreme bouts of awkwardness, and has that equally unfortunate but fitting hopelessly romantic outlook on life and girls. Basically, each member of the family receives some kind of advice to step out of their comfort zone and explore life a bit more, all in the context of lots of writing and lots of partying.
Yes, it's a feel-good, cheesy movie. Yes, I absolutely still love it. OH MY GOD I just realized the director of this movie, Josh Boone, also directed The Fault in Our Stars. How. Did. I. Not. Know. This. I just became doubly excited for TFiOS. Holy crap.
Honestly, one of the things that made this movie so much better was the cast. Had this movie had mediocre actors, I would 've been very upset. From the perspective of acting in general, I just love it when there are those perfectly natural looking scenes when there are so many people talking at once to no one or anyone and it's not just lines from one person to another. There's a scene like that in Super 8 where there are six kids sitting at a diner having a million conversations at once. I love it. It bumps movies up a notch in my opinion, and to quote my brother, it makes it "real." Yes, he watched it. Guys, take note; it's not a chick flick.
I wasn't a huge fan of Logan Lerman, but I guess it's only because I feel like it was Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower playing the character Louis because honestly, can he play anything besides an awkward kid with family issues and a love for obscure books and music? I can't decide if I want him to go play some badass character or if I want him to just keep playing awkward guys for the sake of not finding out if he's bad at being a badass. Also, I didn't like his character in the movie in general. Louis was needed but not needed... his only hold on the plot was the fact that he is inexplicably in love with Samantha Borgens even though she is clearly not his type. Pretty much everything in this movie was believable, but Louis's existence seemed very forced. With a bit more back story, that could've become something I'd be ok with.
I was, however, a huge fan of the soundtrack of this movie. God damn. I'm listening to "Between the Bars" by Elliot Smith as I'm writing this and I may or may not have had a mini scavenger hunt for all of the music. It's definitely a genre of music that not everyone will enjoy... but it's pretty chill and more importantly, it perfectly portrays the swinging moods throughout the film. One might call it obscure. Hang on and let me go get my Ray-Bans.
So all in all, I absolutely definitely recommend this movie. Just gave it 9 stars on IMDb and heard my brother tell me to tell everyone else to watch this movie. The fact that he said that combined with the fact that I listened to my brother adds up to gowatchthismovienownownow. Like I said, it's on YouTube (for now). There are no excuses.
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