When Francisco and I first moved into our new house, we had no internet for about 15 hours. As a result, we were forced to go to Redbox to get our entertainment. After about 10 minutes of going through screens of possible movies to watch, none of which I'd ever heard of, The Oranges came up. Something about the description sounded not terrible, plus it had lots of actors and actresses we like (Hugh Laurie for me; other for Francisco).
Well, let me save you the awfulness in case you are ever tempted to watch The Oranges: it is incredibly awkward and gross and you should avoid it. The setup is two suburban families who are best friends. The father of one family (Hugh Laurie) cheats on his wife with the daughter of the other family (Leighton Meester). Ew. Ew. Ew.
Alia Shawcat (Maybe from Arrested Development) is Hugh Laurie's daughter and understandably annoyed by her father's choices, but comes to appreciate her father's taking life by the horns and follows his footsteps and moves out of her parents' house. The father's best friend (his gf's father) learns from Laurie's carpe diem attitude and is inspired to join an ultimate frisbee team.
It is every bit as terrible and unredemptive as it sounds. The acting isn't good; the writing isn't good. The squirm factor is overwhelming.
5 comments:
This was streaming on Netflix at one point during my free trials, and I almost convinced my husband to watch it w/ me b/c it seemed "thinky" (I know; I'm a sad person for even having this category in my head), but then he found this review and that ended it.
His review is great. Seriously. Articulated many of the things I felt. Except I think that it's possible that he's too generous to the film. For instance:
"Moreover, this supposed femme fatale seems to me, though others may differ, not very pretty, not sexy at all and so far short of mature womanhood that it is hard not to see David, though he is intended to be sympathetic, as less a victim of amour fou than a predator taking advantage of an emotional if not a chronological child. Nina’s relationship with her mother, played by Miss Janney is also that of a teenager, as she constantly acts out and defies her constantly interfering mother who tries unsuccessfully to rein her in and make her compliant by playing on apparently non-existent feelings of guilt. Guilt! She’s going to show her something to be guilty about — and then not feel guilty about it!"
He's not a victim; he's not a predator: his actions appear to me, because of the bad plot, writing and acting, to be simply nonsensical, as does the teenage relationship between the mother and daughter. As do countless other interactions and relationships throughout the film. Which is to say, I'm not sure it's even analyzable.
Well, I failed to see the movie so wouldn't know, but your take is very possible. But I really enjoyed the reply to the fake Chinese proverb: "At no times do you have to burn your house down to see the moon. Doesn’t happen. Ever."
Ha. Yes.
I'd never heard of this, and wondered for a second if it was a riff on The Love For Three Oranges -- from the sounds of it, that would have been much better.
Those complete flops with all-star casts are always interesting studies. You wonder if they were offered exorbitant amounts of money in the hopes that the sheer amount of talent there would somehow manage to improve the script by osmosis.
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