Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Executscan Expected more

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

SnoopyStyle It's 1982, and Billy Conway (Harrison Gilbertson) lives in a shattered family. Eight years ago, his family was in a car accident that killed his sister and made his brother a vegetable. His father has since left the family. His older brother is an angry drunk. His mother (Geena Davis) is struggling mightily to keep things together.The boy is an irresponsible destructive selfish brat. It is impossible to root for him. Certainly he makes it hard to find anything likable in his behavior. It is very tiring to watch this idiot destroy everything he touches. Geena Davis does get some great lines. In one superb scene, she almost saves the movie all by herself. She's really the only thing to watch this movie for.

david-2829 Confusing movie that can't decide whether it wants to be a dark comedy or a serious and sad drama. This confusion seems to stem from the over-the-top bad luck of poor Billy Conway. I mean, how likely is it that a driver in a residential area has a fatal car wreck while swerving to avoid a bowling ball? Or somebody gets fatally burned (opening credits) while firing up the BBQ? Sure, accidents happen... but not like this.The acting is fairly good, with Gina Davis playing a dysfunctional mom who has a talent for creative word nastiness. Too bad the other members lacked her verbal flagrancy, if they talked at all. And some of the more interesting characters (the overly sorry girl at the wake... the addicted aunt) are left woefully unexplored.A few times I also thought it was going to turn towards a teen coming-of-age storyline, but those moments quickly passed in what must've been an attempt to show us that teenage Billy is going through normal stuff for his age? Overall a depressing movie that lacks any insight or specific message. It does show us a slice of dysfunctional family life, but we're never sure what the point is and why we're watching. Some good acting brings it up a notch or two, but can't save a poor script.

eucalyptus9 Dodgy is the word that comes to mind when thinking about this movie. There's some dodgy acting to the point of amateurism, particularly in scenes between Doug and Billy. Although perhaps it wasn't entirely the actors' fault. Maybe it was dodgy scene setup, dodgy directing, dodgy dialog. Even Geena Davis looked a bit non-plussed at times.Then there's the dodgy basic premise of the movie. It's called "Accidents Happen" but, as noted elsewhere, most of the incidents that happen to this family are the result of their own rank stupidity.The dodgiest scenes occur towards the end of the film. Mrs Conway lies to the police, forces one of her sons to lie, and compels the complicity of her other son, his friend and his family. So Mrs Post mouths "Thank you" to Mrs Conway during the bingo game. Why exactly? Her son didn't steal the bowling ball, or fire it off down the road to cause her husband to swerve and die, so he's not going to jail. All that Mrs Conway's lie has done is rob her of her husband's insurance money. And she's saying Thank You? But the grossest scene of irresponsibility and outrageous stupidity is yet to come. Billy decides, with the encouragement of his frail neighbour who has hidden the bowling ball although she looks as though she could barely lift it, to once more send it on its way down a public thoroughfare. So off it goes, winding its way till it ends up in a culvert, from where it comes crashing like a cannonball out onto a public road, to cause whatever unpredictable mayhem. Perhaps this time it could have smashed into a car containing a family returning from a day at the beach and killed them all. Crikey, that would have been hilarious. Instead, it crashes into the police car, which is presumably meant to be funny. What are Billy and his mother going to do when the police come calling? Lie again? Hopefully, the cops will dust it for finger prints and put Billy and the rest of his family in jail where they all belong. Now, THAT would be funny.

me-ga-sa They were trying to make it funny in a British way I suppose because I don't understand British humor at all. They were trying to make it funny and serious at the same time but the result was a parody of a movie. I usually hate people who say "acting was bad" because I rarely think so but I must say in this movie some actors were acting painfully bad. I couldn't understand the point of a movie. Were they trying to say something with this? Well, I couldn't get the message. Maybe it was said out loud but I couldn't FEEL it. If I can't feel it then I can't believe it. I was too disturbed by the way the movie was made. I couldn't feel anything for the characters, I was feeling like I was watching some bad parody. I can only ask the question "What was that?"...