AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

SnoopyStyle Nikki Lostrom (Annette Bening) is devastated by loss of her husband Garret Mathis (Ed Harris). Summer (Jess Weixler) is their daughter. It's 5 years later. She stages open houses. Roger Stillman (Robin Williams) is her neighbor and friend. She starts stalking and then dating college professor Tom Young (Ed Harris) who looks exactly like his dead husband. She hides his resemblance from everyone. He's still friends with his ex Ann (Amy Brenneman).Arie Posin sets up an interesting premise. I wish he had taken more chances. The movie never really raises the tension. This could be a highly emotional character study. Annette Bening is definitely a good enough actress to carry that out. This could be a case of obsession but it's not really. This could have been a lot of things but it never gets there. I kept thinking she could just tell him the truth. The movie could have moved to an even more compelling emotional landscape after Nikki comes clean with Tom. The movie feels stretched out as we wait for the inevitable reveal.

eddie_baggins As a huge fan of director Arie Posin's misunderstood and underrated look at suburbia in his 2005 debut film The Chumscrubber, it was with great anticipation I awaited his long gestating follow up which turned out to be this slice of middle aged romance The Face of Love (or the Look of Love in some countries). The cast looked good, the story seemed intriguing and even though the initial reaction to this film was lukewarm at best I still held out hope that the promise Posin showed on debut would come to the forefront, sadly this was not to be the case.The Face of Love is a hapless film, a groan inducing amateurishly written tale of love and loss that suffers the rare feat of growing worse and worse as the dire dialogue and story line unfolds one after the other. It's actually quiet embarrassing to sit back and witness the silly story take full effect and the actors of such experienced calibre like Annette Benning, Ed Harris and even the late Robin Williams (in a turn obviously taken during his financial troubles) struggle to make the film work. Benning in particular looks utterly lost in her role as grieving widow Nikki, she's given most of the films worst lines and scenes but to say even the reliable Ed Harris succeeds would be a lie as the actor also gets lost further and further into a character that was never going to work. With a lack of solid direction, badly directed acting turns and a terrible script it's like Posin has taken a step back in all areas from The Chumscrubber.The Chumscrubber was often inventive, satirically smart and featured an abundance of neat acting turns (bar the always horrible Camilla Belle) which all fail to eventuate here. Posin was clearly passionate about his follow up project, reading about the film it's easy to see that it was not an easy sell and at the heart of proceedings there is an undeniably intriguing story to tell but in the final product there is no real heart and soul, it's a cold picture where it should have been full of human emotion and care. We never wholeheartedly feel the love Nikki feels for Garret and his doppelganger Tom and romantic moments between the lovers always feels forced and eerily creepy. It's almost like the film turned into a voyeuristic nightmare where we should have been engaged in an emotionally charged love.Without question one of the year's worst films and a major disappointment for those like me that thought Posin was a talent to watch. Face of Love is an embarrassment for all those involved and a showcase for how not to produce a potentially effective screen story. Hard to watch for all the wrong reasons, Face of Love neither inspires, affects nor intrigues, yet does make you wish the horrors on screen would stop for the love of all things decent! Half a desperate neighbour out of 5 For more movie reviews and opinions check out -www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com

vincentlynch-moonoi I'd almost forgotten about Annette Bening, but I rather enjoyed several of her performances in earlier years. I never really cared for Ed Harris, but have come to appreciate him more as he has matured. So when I noticed this on cable I thought it might be worth watching. As I began watching it, for a short while I thought it might be almost Hitchcockian...but unfortunately, it was not. First of all, Hitchcok's films were never plodding, and the early part of this film is very plodding. Of course, Benning's character is depressed after the drowning death of her husband. But it seems to be in a plodding phase a little too long. It begins to perk up a tad when she begins seeing a man who looks like he could be her husband's twin brother (Ed Harris). And this is where there could have been such a wonderful Hitchcockian plot. But alas, it's just a story about a depressed woman who obsesses over the man who likes like her dead husband.Once you realize where the story is going, you settle in for the long wait...the wait to find out how Harris' character finds out that Benning's character loves him for all the wrong reasons.Benning does a nice enough job here, although I actually think Harris' performance is stronger. My big question is why did Robin Williams agree to play the third wheel (a neighbor whose wife died). Williams is fine enough in the part, but it seems a bit beneath him.There are a couple of things wrong with this film, and while this may not be a big thing, who the heck selected Annette Benning's wardrobe. PU. The other thing is that Annete Benning's character is so creepy, that Harris' character would be a fool to fall in love with her. I mean it...really creepy! Of course, the climax of the film comes when Harris finally figures out that Benning is "in love" with him because he looks like her ex-husband. Of course, for a few minutes you wonder if one or both of them will also drown, and... And I'm not sure at all how I feel about the final ending of the film.Do I recommend this? No. Well, maybe if nothing else is on the cable channels that you want to watch.

stacyalangton Hats off to the writers and the director. This is a wonderful script and a wonderful idea. One can see why actors of the caliber of Annette Bening and Ed Harris wanted to do this film. Their performances are exceptional.Nikki is flawed in such a terribly human way - who wouldn't give just about anything for another day with their beloved? - and so we understand her deception, though we are horrified by it.I half expected her daughter to either faint dead-away or scream on the spot when she meets Tom, but her reaction is even more visceral and violent than one would expect.Nikki lapses into a kind of temporary insanity in Mexico, which is an understandable reaction to the very depth of her grief over Garrett's death.Robin Williams' subtle sadness projected in his performance is especially heartbreaking, as it was one of his last.Nikki does finally move on in a way that is satisfying to the audience, though I won't spoil its beauty here. A very moving film.