There are two love-lives being studied in this film, that of the father - embracing his homosexuality late in life, and of the son - trying to unweave the tangled web of his psyche that is his fear of commitment and his profound sense of alienation and isolation, alas, apparently opposite sides of the same Freudian coin (yes, eye-roll). I understand that this is Mike Mills', the director's, semiautobiographical tale about his relationship with his father, which is utterly surprising and baffling because the older man's story line is filled with insight, humor, and human tragedy while that of the younger is obvious without being at all illuminating. Yes, he has some abandonment issues, pertaining to his upbringing, resulting in some curious attachment issues, pertaining to his beautiful, mysterious, quirky,bohemian girlfriend (to also his string of presumably equally beautiful, mysterious, quirky bohemian ex-girlfriends) - they fall in love doing oh-so-unique things like rollerskate hand-in-hand through hotel hallways, eat cheapo burritos whilest sitting on the sidewalk, go to hip costume parties in ironic get-ups, stay up all night unfolding each others childhood issues to fantastic jazz soundtrack etc, but all this intimacy darkens his heart with fear...If you're looking for a treatise on the ennui of the stylishly quirky and artistically melancholy young, you're better off watching Garden State.eat cheapo burritos whilest sitting on the sidewalk, go to hip costume parties in ironic get-ups, stay up all night unfolding each others childhood issues to fantastic jazz soundtrack etc, but all this intimacy darkens his heart with fear...If you' re looking for a treatise on the ennui of the stylishly quirky and artistically melancholy young, you're better off watching Garden State.eat cheapo burritos whilest sitting on the sidewalk, go to hip costume parties in ironic get-ups, stay up all night unfolding each others childhood issues to fantastic jazz soundtrack etc, but all this intimacy darkens his heart with fear...If you' re looking for a treatise on the ennui of the stylishly quirky and artistically melancholy young, you're better off watching Garden State.
I also take issue with the 2-dimensionality of the female characters (both the mother and the girl friend), they are so economically rendered that their eccentricities appear not so much as endearing and humanizing but more like inexplicable cases of Tourettes. I diagnose a deadly case of the "manic pixie dream girl" syndrome (google it).
Christopher Plummer as the father, however, was the silver-lining of the film (as was, perhaps, Ewan McGregor's character's array of amazing sweaters) and made the 2.99 that iTunes had charged me not an entire waste.
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