Here's the basic story: two women meet prior to becoming sister-in-laws. They both live in New York City, and their parents plan to wed by Thanksgiving. Tracy, the younger of the two, is just starting her freshman year at college, and Brooke, the elder, is a 30-something year old with a free spirit and a flair for the wild. They click instantly.
What follows is a film about their friendship and growing relationship. It's funny at times, and other times are sad. It's co-written by Greta Gerwig (the attractive blonde in the leading role), so it's no surprise to see her character is weighted down by melodrama and heavy "acting" scenes.
Brooke hopes to open a restaurant (one of her many failed ideas in her early adulthood years), and the majority of the film's drama comes from her finding investors to support her ideas. They travel to Connecticut to visit her old fiance and his wife in hopes of additional financial backing. The scene is long, tedious, and completely out of left field. It lasts a good 20 minutes and takes up the majority of the film's second half. It is written as though a school project for a play, complete with quick dialogue framed by detailed choreography and witty one liners. Compared to the rest of the film, the scene is jarring and out-of-place. It is here that many characters are given a more fleshed out back story, and yet it never feels natural or rhythmic. It's like this 20 minute scene was written as a short play and then a movie written around it.
Up until that point, the film was witty and occasionally thought-provoking. It's clear that the writers didn't know how to end the story or fill a large gap in the script, which is unfortunate considering the wealth of subject matter they had explored up until that point. Maybe this is a story only meant to be a short. Ironic, especially considering the main character's obsession with writing short stories for fun. Perhaps she could have taken a look at this screenplay as a side job.
(Awards potential: No potential)
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