ShangLuda Admirable film.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

SnoopyStyle Lulu McAfee (Melanie Griffith) runs away from her San Francisco group home for schizophrenics. Her ex Ben Clifton (Patrick Swayze) is a frustrated failing TV writer and married to psychiatrist Claire (Penelope Ann Miller). He is not happy to have Lulu back in his life. She tells him that they have a son together. He drives her to Wisconsin to meet their son on his 16th birthday but she has an accomplice lying for her. Meanwhile, Claire flies to join them.Patrick Swayze is playing against type as a meek writer type. It doesn't really work especially with his character being different in his flashback. Pairing him with a schizophrenic Griffith is frustrating. It's very unlikely that he can't see through her charade. All he has to do is to ask her for the phone number. The romance simply doesn't work for me. The duo is improved with the addition of Claire. I just don't find the central relationship that compelling.

Chrysanthepop Director and writer John Kaye has put a lot of heart into the making of 'Forever Lulu'. With an innovative story he tackles lots of different themes of love like a love between a husband and a wife, an undying love between a two former lovers that was interrupted by a mental illness and a love between parents and children. Part of 'Forever Lulu' is a road movie and the viewer is given some wonderful glimpses of the American landscape. The story is tight and moves at a steady pace. On the flip side, I wonder why the Steven Bauer- Penelope Ann Miller track was left open to the viewers. The performances by the three main leads are great. It is finally good to see Melanie Griffith do something of note. Her subtle yet spirited performance and occasionally (but suitably) explosive scenes reflect her skills as a talented actress. Patrick Swayze too gives a nuanced and understated performance. Penelope Ann Miller is wonderfully pulls off a role that could have easily been messed up by a lesser actor. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Richard Schiff have small roles but they have a welcoming presence. I also liked the soundtrack which is whimsical at times and gentle at others. The film is quite well executed overall and I wonder why I had not heard much about it during the last years. The film was more than I had expected because given the recent track record of the three leads I expected a lesser film but instead got a pleasant surprise.

ponyiq I agree that this should not have been a comedy, it should not have been a drama. Of course there are moments that are comedic, but it is an amazing, sensitive, deep work that delves into places most of us never want to think about. I have been a fan of Patrick Swayze's for many years. He is able to reach somewhere deep within himself to handle a huge array of characters and this one, well he nails it on the head. You can see his love, the many different types of love and his conflict, both internal and external. The story deals with a topic that is all too common, yet all too often swept under the rug, schizophrenia and mental illness. I was amazed at the way the screenwriters,actors and directors/producers handled this subject. It was handled with sensitivity, intelligence and it was not about the stereotypes for the most part. It showed how a person, if well medicated can be "normal" of course what is normal? Melanie Griffin if absolutely amazing. She portrays the lead character with an amazing sense of humanity, grace and depth. She is perfect for the role and she reaches down somewhere that I never realized she had within her. I will look at her films in a new light now. This is an amazing piece of work, brilliantly done, with class and elegance.

vchimpanzee Lulu has had mental problems for years, but she is relatively stable and living in the Valley View home. Ben is a writer for an Emmy-nominated sci-fi TV series, married to Claire, a psychiatrist.Lulu gave up for adoption the son she had with Ben 16 years ago, though she never told Ben she was pregnant. She knows the boy's name is Martin and that he was adopted by the Ellsworths, a college professor and his wife living in Madison, Wisconsin. With his birthday coming up, she believes this is the perfect opportunity to take that road trip she wanted to back when they were dating. She sneaks out of the home and meets Ben, who is reluctant to drive from Los Angeles to Wisconsin. But Lulu gets a friend at the home to pretend to be the boy's father on the phone, so Ben thinks the meeting has been arranged.When Claire finds out what Ben has done, she is furious and decides to follow him. On the airplane, she tells her story to a stranger. She seems like such a witch, but it turns out she and Ben lost a son to leukemia, and she does show a vulnerable side.Ben and Lulu have a fun trip, with a few problems because of Lulu's mental state. Well, anyway, it's fun for us. Lulu does take off her clothes when a motel has a pool, and I think certain body parts were blurred on TV. Ben starts out uptight but ends up enjoying the experience.It is fortunate that Claire followed Ben and Lulu. She is able to provide a lot of help, especially when she finds out the Ellsworths don't know Lulu and Ben are coming. She really is a caring person, despite what we have seen so far.The meeting with the Ellsworths is pleasant enough at first, but it's not too hard to figure out what will happen. However, everything has a way of working out.Melanie Griffith is so wonderful as Lulu. Such a sweet girl, and so funny and easy to like, though somewhat troubled. Most of the leading actors give good performances. There are a couple of disturbing scenes, including one with blood from one of the several flashbacks of Lulu's earlier relationship with Ben.This is a cute but quirky adventure.