The biggest thing this movie said to me in its first 10 minutes was, combined with Just My Luck and Chapter 27, I don’t care how high or late-on-set or f*cked up and slutty Lindsay Lohan is, she is still a f*cking great actress. Add Jane Fonda, who also wowed me in a recent production (Monster-in-Law), and Garry Marshall’s really simple but unique, real and adorable direction, and I could’ve almost turned off right there and been sure of this review. This is first rate average movie making and I’m as slave to it as I am to competently produced pop music so long as it has a bit of heart. Garry Marshall just moves in on a location and seizes whatever weird and wonderful eventualities he spots as background to his scenes … he should totally get himself a Flickr account, lol. But in the meantime, it makes his movies an absolute pleasure to behold, that beautiful combo of quirk and norm.

There’s a reality to this movie that I think is exactly what I crave most in cinema, and it’s almost surprising to find it coming from Garry Marshall. I think this one will really grow on me in future viewings, and Jane Fonda is absolutely going into my wacky Oscar hopes for next year. If I was just a little weirder than I am, I’d couple Lindsay with her too … though I’m sure her time will also come – she simply cannot be as much of a mess as the tabloids want us to think if she can deliver her absolute Lindsayness in Just My Luck, Chapter 27 and this in the past 6 months. Compare her to any other actress of her age right now and she is actually a miracle and, I feel like I might say this with just about any review of her movies in the foreseeable future, I hate myself for ever viewing her otherwise. This definitely belongs to the more obscure and personal side of Marshall’s career, like The Other Sister as opposed to Pretty Woman, and I genuinely can’t wait to watch it again.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 3:43 am and is filed under 4 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.