MOVIE SYNOPSIS
Three years past his divorce, veteran novelist Bill Borgens (Greg Kinnear) can’t stop obsessing over, let alone spying on, his ex-wife Erica (Jennifer Connelly), who ignominiously left him for another man. Even as his neighbor-with-benefits, Tricia (Kristen Bell) tries to push him back into the dating pool, he remains blind to anyone else’s charms. Meanwhile, his fiercely independent collegiate daughter Samantha (Lily Collins) is publishing her first novel while recoiling at the very thought of first love with a diehard romantic; and his teen son Rusty (Nat Wolff) is trying to find his voice, both as a fantasy writer and as the unexpected boyfriend of a dream girl with unsettlingly real problems. As each of these situations mounts into a tangled trio of romantic holiday crises, it brings the Borgens to surprising revelations about how endings become beginnings. (source: collider.com)
Life is a complex, constantly confounding thing.
Just when we think we have it all sorted out, it ducks and swoops without warning, leaving us stand shell-shocked on what used to be solid, well-known ground.
And coming back to a point where life starts to make sense again, assuming that is even possible, is a challenge beyond the grasp of mere mortals.
Or at least that’s how it feels to Bill Borgens when his wife Erica leaves him for a hot younger man, leaving his kids and him flailing in her wake.
Uncertain of the way forward, he is unable to let go of her, effectively stalking her and making any hope of moving anywhere that doesn’t feature her in a prominent position next to near impossible.
His kids are also struggling.
Even though daughter Samantha has scored a publishing deal, and son Rusty may have found his dream woman, they remain tied to the trauma of their mother leaving them, unable to fully enjoy all the new and exciting things life is bringing them.
I think anyone with even half a beating heart can relate to the difficulties the Borgens family face in forging new, meaningful lives in a world they now barely recognise, and with the superbly talented Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly in the lead roles, you know you’re going to get a nuanced, unflinchingly honest look at life in the emotional quagmire.
It looks like one of those rich, engrossing year-in-a-life movies that are more to do with the relationships between the characters and the way these play out in their lives than it is about a fast moving plot looking desperately to get somewhere.
And that’s just fine with me.
I am looking forward to disappearing into the fractured lives of the Borgens, when the movie opens in June 2013.