We liked a lot this dysfunctional family movie that illustrates one of Jack's sayings: If you think your family's bad, look at this one. That said, some may be disturbed by its tribulations but we handled it just fine. Meryl Streep (last blogged in Hope Springs) and Julia Roberts (most recently in Larry Crowne) are terrific as the warring pill-popping mother and angry daughter, and the sisterly chemistry between Streep and Margo Martindale (last in Win Win) is good fun. Then we have Sam Shepard (Mud), Chris Cooper (The Company You Keep), and many more. Even though Roberts and Streep didn't win any Golden Globes tonight, they were nominated for them and the Screen Actors Guild awards (the latter also recognized the entire ensemble).
Adapted by Tracy Letts from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, the screenplay has received a few nominations, as did his adaptation of another of his plays into Killer Joe. Trivia: Letts plays Andrew Lockhart, the new head of the CIA, in Homeland.
Poor John Wells (director). Such a good writer on E.R. and Shameless, but his directing debut The Company Men had poor reviews, and the haters are hating on this one as well, with rottentomatoes critics averaging 65% and audiences only 75.
The talented Gustavo Santaolalla (On the Road) is the composer and you can listen to clips on the amazon page, though, as usual, the studio is promoting the compilation album, which has only three Santaolalla tracks.
Let the haters wallow in their hate and go see this locally, unless others' family squabbles send you screaming from the room.
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