Rating of
3/4
A Good Suburban Drama
Franz Patrick - wrote on 08/12/08
I saw this film back when I was in high school and I didn’t get the point of it. Upon viewing it with a lot more experience, I thought that it was a smart observation about surburban life. Although it was somber in various levels, it is also darkly comic while still being tragic. Thanks to Ang Lee’s ability to balance tones and characters, this turns out to be not just another look at suburban depression. It actually has something important to say, which should be apparent by the end of the film. I must give kudos to Sigourney Weaver for playing an unlikeable but hilarious character. Although her character says one thing, she completely thinks and does the opposite–which I think most people can relate to, including myself. Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, and Katie Holmes were (or looked anyway) so young here to the point where it was kind of shocking. All of them delivered and proved to be interesting side characters. In a way, this is kind of like a classic novel that literature professors love to dissect. Motifs, contradiction, foreshadowing… all of those things that make up a rich novel can be found in this film. If one is into films about tragedy in suburbia, I recommend this one without hesitation.
