Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

kenfromcanada Filled with recognizable actors, this movie - to me - verges on great. The story is - unfortunately - too believable. A crack head mother abandoning her child, a washed up musician, a band together past their expiry date. Probably a tale acted out in real life - daily. Shue has the crack/alcoholic/hooker/or groupie role down pat - but - not to diminish from her acting - and - I think she looked great for very late 40's! Breslin is - again in this role as so many of her others - an actor who I think will be amongst the greats. It is always a pleasure watching Peter Stormare, although he is best as a villain - here - he isn't - but is a great character actor - from Sweden. The remainder of the cast are uniformly superb - a few are on hit TV shows in the past couple of years. All in all, this film just seemed - real.

dansview I watched this because I like songwriting,road pictures, and the lead guy as an actor. But I couldn't stick with it. I left at the 3/4 mark. It was like watching a documentary of a no-talent loser strumming a guitar in bars. How long can you do that? OK Indie film world. There are a lot of Godless waste-oids floating around the states and the world. We get it already.Was this supposed to be summer time? No one was cold, there was no snow in the Heartland, and the kid was not in school. No one ever mentions school. They could have at least acknowledged what season it is. Where is she from? Elisabeth Shue would have been 46 when this was filmed. Thirteen years prio, she would have been 33. Isn't that a bit old for a groupie? Especially since she is eight years older than the lead guy in real life.I guess it was good that the music sucked, because then you can see why the guys is struggling and not famous anymore.I give credit for not dubbing in some soundtrack. The lead guy looks so much like Chris Martin of Coldplay by the way. We are to assume that years ago, with a full band, he sounded good and had a knack for writing poignant lyrics.Nivola (the lead) played his role with soul, as he always does. The little girl did well by not pushing any stereotypes of the jaded kid or the precocious one.I just didn't know where this was going,or maybe I knew all too well, and that's why I abandoned it.I don't recommend it to anyone. It's slower than molasses, and it's hard to root for anyone, other than the kid. Having said all that, it never stooped to sleaziness or preaching, and didn't slam you over the head with an Indie soundtrack to the non-musical scenes.

Tony Heck "I don't have a kid. I never even met this woman." Janie's (Breslin) mom (Shue) is having a rough time and is trying to get herself into rehab. She decides to finally introduce Janie to her rock star father (Nivola) in hopes that he will take care of her. When told of what would happen if he refuses, Ethan decides to take her. While on tour the band and Ethan's life begin to fall apart. I had pretty high expectations for this one because I really enjoyed "August Rush". While I like that the actors did their own singing this was not as good as "August Rush" was. I did really enjoy this movie though and highly recommend it but for those that have seen "August Rush" be prepared. The acting and story are very good but also extremely predictable, in most movies that hurts it, but this one still keeps you watching. If you like movies that are about music then this is a good one to check out. Overall, not as good as "August Rush" but still very much worth watching. I give it a B.

Preraphaelite-1 I don't understand this low rating. Completely believable- very well acted, directed, written. Abigail Breslin was so natural and lovely, Alessandro Nivola (Why doesn't he work more?) absolutely pitch perfect, Peter Stormare created a nuanced manager needing to support creatives in trouble and still make money, Frank Whalley is always awesome, Francis Fisher doing another sophisticated turn as an intelligent, cold woman who wants to warm up-all wonderful. The music affecting and unusual. Having been personally behind the scenes for independent music work- spot on. I guess this is what is called a sleeper- but I advise that you try it for the family/responsibility/addiction/creative ideas. See this movie- you won't regret it.