In her new job, Birdie hopes to blossom from introverted dreamer to brave pioneer, and gregarious Daniel Aoki volunteers to be her guide. But her solitary world expands when she takes a job the summer before college, working the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel. Raised in isolation and homeschooled by strict grandparents, she's cultivated a whimsical fantasy life in which she plays the heroic detective and every stranger is a suspect. Mystery-book aficionado Birdie Lindberg has an overactive imagination. More than Hines' workmanlike direction, Shelly's somewhat uneven screenplay offers enough dark elements to make the contrived set-up worth accepting for the sake of the unfolding story she wanted to tell.About the Book Eighteen-year-old, mystery-loving Birdie's new job at a historic Seattle hotel leads her and her co-worker, Daniel, to a real mystery about a reclusive writer who resides there in this romantic novel from the author of the acclaimed "Alex, Approximately."īook Synopsis "An atmospheric, multilayered, sex-positive romance." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) After an awkward first encounter, Birdie and Daniel are forced to work together in a Seattle hotel where a famous author leads a mysterious and secluded life in this romantic contemporary novel from the author of Alex, Approximately. Justin Long provides a menacing edge to the smallish role of the lawn-mowing low-life. In a welcome big-screen return as Ian, Timothy Hutton does what he can under a lot of duct tape in a mostly passive role with moments of vented exasperation, while Kristin Bell ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall") shows surprising grit as Sarah, especially toward the end when the women grapple on the bathroom floor. She manages to give heart to the tenacious hold her character has on her flailing marriage. Ryan acquits herself well as Louise, and although it's not remarkable work, it shows that the actress could thrive into middle-age with her fizzy spirit intact. The open ending doesn't quite satisfy, although the implications that it raises lends texture to what has gone on before. There is a nasty twist to the story in the form of an interloper that turns their vituperative cat-and-mouse game into a game of survival. Even though Louise exhibits vaguely sociopathic behavior, she does not represent the only threat to Ian. Ian spends most of the 84-minute running time stuck on the toilet as he faces one humiliation after another. This is the beginning of a roundelay in which they spar about the merits of their marriage. Unwilling to accept that her marriage has gone kaput, Louise inadvertently knocks him out with a flower pot and takes advantage of his unconsciousness in order to duct tape him to a chair until he relents.
He has decided after thirteen years of marriage that he wants a divorce, so he can rendezvous with his 24-year-old girlfriend Sarah in Paris.
A high-powered fortyish attorney, she comes home to find her house showered romantically with rose petals and Ian writing a Dear Jane letter to her. The brief story focuses on married couple, Louise and Ian, on a day when they unexpectedly cross paths at their bucolic vacation home. Her "Waitress" co-star Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") takes the helm in her directorial debut, and her lack of experience may attribute to the fact that it feels more like a filmed stage play despite Nancy Schreiber's expert cinematography. This time, she takes a darker, less whimsical path in exposing the insidious nature of a marriage that has dissipated from a lack of communication. The screenplay is the last work of the late actress Adrienne Shelly, who wrote, directed, and co-starred in 2007's agreeably idiosyncratic "Waitress", and what they have in common is her supple dexterity in balancing the off-kilter elements of her stories into something deeper.
SERIOUS MOONLIGHT FULL
It's been a full two decades since Meg Ryan emerged from a series of background girlfriend roles to become America's Sweetheart in 1989's "When Harry Met Sally ", but in this strangely conceived 2009 comedy, she still has that undeniable twinkle in spite of all the age-defying cosmetic alterations to her face.
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