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PEDRO Reviews THE ACCOMPLISHED LIFE OF AN UNHAPPY MAN This movie is SA’s latest film here at HTG and my prediction was that it would be the sleeper hit of the summer both critically and at the box office. It could still do well at the box office, but I was a little disappointed with the film. PLOT: The plot follows Lenny (Dustin Hoffman), a man who is incredibly unhappy with his life. He is rich and loves his job but still bitches about his job every single day. He wants to be married and wonders why he isn’t. One day, sick of hearing Lenny bitch and moan, his guardian Angel, Richard (Bill Murray) comes to see him. He then takes him on an adventure into the past to show him all the great women that he could have ended up with. We meet a young Lenny (Jake Gyllenhaal) at college and see him in various situations with many women such as Ellen (Alison Lohman), Maggie (Bryce Dallas Howard), Vera (Emily Mortimer) and Kim (Sienna Miller). His biggest problem is that he really just gets to asking the girls out. He just talks to them, its almost like he just wants to be their friend, which of course as we see in the film, it screwed him up big time in the future. What makes the plot uninteresting is the bad execution of it. The film is incredibly short for its own good and the scenes with Young Lenny and these women just aren’t as interesting as they could have been. FINAL PLOT GRADE: 50/100 DIALOGUE: The lengthy dialogue while Lenny is discussing his crappy life was just uninteresting to me. Then we get Richard into the scene who is just annoying. Several times throughout the film I wanted to kill this man because his dialogue was so annoying. There is only so many times than I can hear craphola in one film uttered by one man. Saying that word so much is like me always using the f word, it really doesn’t help the film. I also didn’t much care for the f words in this film either. The f words to me were just said to be said and they were once again or as far as I noticed, all uttered by Richard. The f words were just inserted at random times. Some of the dialogue between the young Lenny and the women though are actually pretty good, but it wasn’t enough to save this film. FINAL DIALOGUE GRADE: 50/100 CHARACTERS: I just wish that the older Lenny would have gotten over himself. We really could have used a better plot to get this character moving. His older character was all right for what it was and it was nice to see him at a younger age, so we know where all his bitching came from. The characterization of this film though was just mediocre. The women are interesting, at least some of them are but we don’t see enough of them to really care about their characters. We hope to see some characterization of the older Lenny at the end of the film, but the film basically just ended to me. I really hoped for some better characterization from this film but I didn’t receive it. FINAL CHARACTERS GRADE: 50/100 CASTING: The casting was fan-fucking tastic. Whoever casts Emily Mortimer in a film automatically earns extra points with me. She’s an ultra hottie and a very underused actress, who is just incredible. I really can’t say enough about her. Alison Lohman too is a great female actor too and is cast well in this film. I also believe that Bryce Dalls Howard will be the next “it” girl and if she isn’t, she should be. She’s a great actress. I thought that Bill Murray was also rightfully cast in his role, but I just think that he got stuck with an annoying character. I don’t think that Nora Ephron should have directed the film though...this movie felt to rated “R” for her kind of tastes. FINAL CASTING GRADE: 90/100 PACING: The pacing of this film was just bad. This comes from the bad characterization. How am I going to expect the characterization to be good if the pacing isn’t good? The film’s pacing is way too fast. We meet Lenny and Richard and are thrust into the past where we meet way too many women and not enough time to really keep track of them all. The film just seemed to be too fast paced. I think that it could have been paced a lot better. The film to me just also basically ended at the end, which was a disappointment. Not a lot happened that was worthwhile. I think that the pacing was the worst part of the film. FINAL PACING GRADE: 35/100 ADVERTISING: I absolutely loved the advertising for this film and it was one of the major reasons why I was anticipating this film. I thought that the posters for this film were just absolutely amazing and I thought that the website was well made too. I just think that the advertising campaign has been one of the best here at HTG so far. I think that a lot of films campaigns can learn a thing or two from this game. I don’t think that advertising can get any better than this. Whoever did the ads for this film did an outstanding job and deserves a pat on the back. This great campaign will help the film to great numbers at the box office. FINAL ADVERTISING GRADE: 100/100 WRITING: The writing was just a little above mediocre. I saw spelling errors, but not enough to really get me annoyed. I just didn’t find this to be one of the best films here at HTG. The film will still probably get a failing grade from me, but unlike a lot of films, this is a failing film with a lot of potential. This film had the potential to be great, but it faltered. I definitely think that it could have been written better. I think that it had a nice concept, I mean, who wouldn’t want to go back in time like that. I just think that the film had too many flaws to make it a great film. However if it was made a little longer and re-written I can see it becoming a really decent film. I really enjoy SA as a writer and I can’t wait to see what he cooks up next. FINAL WRITING GRADE: 55/100 FINAL OVERALL GRADE: 62/100 NEWMAN Reviews THE ACCOMPLISHED LIFE OF AN UNHAPPY MAN The first thing that attracted me to “The Accomplished Life of an Unhappy Man” was its creative advertising. The posters and trailers quickly shot up my anticipation in a matter of a week or so, and by the time it was released, I was eagerly anticipating it. But still, when I went into the film, I really didn’t know what to expect. The design of the final poster made me think I was in for a “I Heart Huckabees”-type experience, but that was not the case at all. The film is actually more of a “It’s a Wonderful Life”/ “Alfie”/ romantic comedy kind of movie. Now, though I was initially disappointed it was something a bit… kookier… I eventually got over it and began to enjoy myself. As I implied earlier, the plot isn’t miraculously creative, but it’s still very well written. The characters of older/younger Lenny were depicted very well, and it was within the realms of possibility to see the young Lenny age into the older one. What I did have a problem with was the many women in Lenny’s life. A marvelous array of today’s most talented actresses (Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Lohman, Sienna Miller, Emily Mortimer) has been assembled for the picture, but I feel that many of their talents were wasted here. Nearly all of the female characters were given good set-ups, giving insights into their characters and personality, but after that… they kind of disappear. Lenny moves on to the next girl after only one or two scenes, and most of the women are never seen again. It’s a great pity, as they all had the potential to become great characters, but are never fully fleshed out. Despite this, I was kept interested throughout the film, wanting to see whom Lenny would encounter next and what affect the characters would have on his future life. A great deal of this came from the excellent casting. Dustin Hoffman and Jake Gyllenhaal make a great older/younger pair, sharing several physical features with each other. As I’ve said before, some of today’s brightest new actresses appear as the many women in Lenny’s life, with each of them bringing something unique to their perspective characters. The script doesn’t really scream Nora Ephron, who usually directs more traditional romantic comedies, but it’s a decent enough choice. The script keeps things brisk and brief at 83 pages, and it suits the film nicely for its style. All in all, I quite enjoyed the film, even though it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I still am a bit disappointed that the females weren’t used in greater detail, but I found solace in the character of Lenny. An interesting little film, and well worth the read. 70/100 MATTRICKS Reviews THE ACCOMPLISHED LIFE OF AN UNHAPPY MAN The plot follows Lenny (Dustin Hoffman), a man who lives a full life yet is still incredibly unhappy with it. He feels somewhat empty because he never got married and balems God for his misfortune. One day, sick of hearing Lenny’s complaining, his guardian Angel, Richard (Bill Murray) comes to see him. He takes him on a spiritual journey into the past to show him all the great women that he could have ended up with. We meet a young Lenny (Jake Gyllenhaal) at college and see him in various situations with many women such as Ellen, Maggie, Vera and Kim (Sienna Miller). He has no problem approaching the women and talking to them, but he seems to just freeze at the awkward moment that you’re supposed to ask them out at. He ends up waking up in the end and that’s it. We never see how he adjusts. We never see what happened to the girls of his past. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth how it’s left hanging. The script itself is effective while at the same time very boring. The very first page has one of the longest voice overs I think I’ve ever heard in a film. Then, Richard shows up and temporarily saves the film with his constant berating of Lenny. It was looking up again until they went back in time and we heard Lenny’s pretentious attitude towards the women. It got to the point to where I was hoping for him to end up alone and miserable. Lenny has to be one of the most unlikable main characters I’ve seen in a romantic comedy in quite some time. The girls are the driving force of the film and I’m still upset that SA only scratched the surface with these characters when there was so much potential. As for the casting and performances, I have very few complaints. I didn’t think this was a Nora Ephron style movie as hers usually have happy, uplifting endings. Dustin Hoffman, though a great actor really didn’t give his strongest performance. Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Murray, and Allison Lohman all gave very memorable performances and I’m really hoping that Sienna Miller and Bryce Howard get more roles in the upcoming future. Maybe even starring roles. In conclusion, I was very looking forward to reading this film after Going Home and In Memoriam. However, while those two films are classics that should stand the test of time, this film is very forgettable. Score: 40/100
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