Review: This movie started off quite good and Russell Crowe's performance was brilliant but I got quite bored after a while and the whole back and forth into time element, started to get on my nerves. The ending was also pretty weak and I personally didn't think that it had to be 2 hours long. I did love the chemistry between Jake Davis (Russell Crowe) and his young daughter Katie (Kylie Rogers), and the emotional beginning did touch me but I lost interest in the older Katie (Amanda Seyfried) storyline. Her relationship with Cameron (Aaron Paul) was doomed from the start, because she kept on randomly sleeping with anyone she could get her hands on. With that aside, Crowe was truly brilliant in this movie, and when he was having seizures, it really did look real. After losing his wife in a fatal car crash, while Jake was driving with Katie in the back of the car, the successful writer becomes depressed and suffers with seizures, which are uncontrollable. His doctor suggests that he should be hospitalised for a while because the car crash had obviously taken a toll on his life, so he sends Katie to live with her aunt Elizabeth (Diane Kruger) and her husband William (Bruce Greenwood). After 7 months in hospital, he is finally released, and he attempts to get his daughter back, which upsets Elizabeth and William who have grown close to the little girl. They try to gain custody, because Jake is running out of money and it still pretty unwell but Jakes lawyers manage to find out some information about William, which makes them drop the case. The movie then jumps in time and shows Katie later on in life, struggling to hold down a relationship and helping a young girl who is battling with her past. After sleeping with many men, Katie finally settles down with Cameron but she still finds it hard to to fully commit. There is a big gap in the film, so you don't get to see Katie through her teenage years but you do get to see how the relationship with her father has taken its toll in her latter years. The concept actually wasn't bad but it seemed like it was going on forever. Jane Fonda, who plays Jakes agent, should have had a bigger role in the film and the time periods became a bit confusing after a while. When the whole film comes together at the end, I didn't really get the moral of the story but it's still a watchable film because of it's emotional content. Watchable!
Round-Up: Russell Crowe, 52, really did prove why he is a highly rated actor in this film but his movies have been pretty poor of late. The big budget, A New York Winter's Tale, flopped at the box office and Noah, The Water Diviner and Broken City, just about broke even. His performance in Les Miserables became a running joke because of his poor singing and questionable accent and the Man with the Iron Fists was just a really terrible movie. Ridley Scott's interpretation of Robin Hood, also didn't go down with critics so it has been some time since Crowe has made a decent movie. He's due to star alongside Ryan Gosling and Kim Basinger in the Nice Guys, which is due out later this year, so that should, hopefully, bring him out of the downhill slump. This movie was directed by Gabriele Muccino, 48, who brought you, The Pursuit of Happiness, Seven Pounds and Playing for Keeps and he has also directed movies for the Italian market. He certainly brought out the best of Russell Crowe in this film but it really didn't have to be 2 hours long, even though he was covering a large time period.
Budget: $2.5million Worldwide Gross: $4.8million
I recommend this movie to people who are into their dramatic movies starring Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Aaron Paul, Diane Kruger, Bruce Greenwood, Jane Fonda and Octavia Spencer. 4/10
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