Went to the movies tonight, and let the wife drag me to a chick flick. Normally I'm more than open minded about these types of films, but this one left me cold from almost the opening shots. It seems to really have some worthwhile things to say, but has a hard time cutting through the schmaltz and the bland direction and screenwriting to say it.
Hard to put my finger on, but it felt as if each of the actors were working in an isolation chamber, and never seemed to make any sort of connection with each other in a believable way. All the money seems to have been spent on all the big name female talent, and we are left with a lot of leftovers in the male parts (Barry Bostwick?), which is a special problem considering the 'man who is the love of her life' is played by such a dead fish, that you wonder what all the fuss was about, plus a script that looks as if it were copied almost verbatim from the novel (and sometimes sounds rather awkward coming out of characters mouths).
My biggest problem is with Claire Danes, who is totally miscast as a woman from the 40s/50s with mannerisms and acting style straight out of the 90s (a similar thing happened recently with 'Black Dahlia' where Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank are miscast as the female leads). I would have preferred Natasha Richardson to have played the younger version of Vanessa Redgrave, then at least there would have been some slight resemblance to the older character (a fact that seems to have been the only job requirement for the actress who plays the young Meryl Streep - for which the resemblance is uncanny and almost creepy). A lot of pretty scenery, a lot of female bonding (the beauty and cycle of life, yadda yadda yadda), and a few beautifully romantic settings that look straight off the cover of a supermarket romance novel. Take your wife, get some points.