MIMDB score: 8.0
Current IMDB score: 7.9
Director: Michael Arndt
Main Actors you care about: Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin
Why I liked it: It's real and good . . . it's really good. The movie understands the quality of being alive. It makes you happy just seeing the poster above even though it's not the happiest movie. This is perfectly how you should describe life to someone from another planet that doesn't understand humans.
What stands out: Everyone does well. Story is great. Details are great. The van not being in tip top shape but works just like their family is one of those cool things that is going on in the movie.
What I would change: I don't know if the grandpa needed to die. That kind of set the humor a little over the top I think. A little "Weekend at Berinie's" I think is too much for this movie to have in it.
I know the ending is pretty amazing for most people but I feel like it could have been even better somehow. I can't come up with anything better but I think something else could have been done that would have been even better.
Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
The scene on the dock about suffering. Some of the most interesting people are the people that have suffered the most. It's sad but mostly true. People that don't suffer are generally boring. There is a general consensuses that I'm a sad person. I generally am not smiling and not easily excited. That's not because I'm sad inside. That's because I'm generally thinking about something that is sad. Those are more interesting things to think about. Why is that person happy as compared to why is that person sad for instance is more interesting. It might be more enjoyable to think about why that person is happy but you don't really learn anything. There's not much to think through. Oh that person is happy because they just got a promotion or is eating ice cream or gets joy in finding someone's personality in they way they walk down a street. Those are good things but not much to learn from at all. Those are passing thoughts. It takes longer to think about ways to make sad or bad things better than basking in happiness. It's the pursuit of happiness that makes me happy and not happiness itself. This idea is already explained in The Pursuit of Happynes movie review.
Also "Do what you love and fuck the rest."
Similar Movies/TV Shows: Juno? As Good As It Gets, Garden State, and Away We Go are all close but this movie is fairly unique.
"Side" note: Earmuffs! The scenes where they make the daughter listen to headphones while the other characters cuss was actually kind of true. The prop people made sure music was playing in the headphones in the scene so that the child actor wouldn't hear the cussing.
Another interesting thing was the drugs used in the movie were actually crushed up vitamin B.
