01. Wow, most seriously overwrought film ever. Okay, maybe not ever, but close. If Michael Scott had directed this, he would have said “After lunch, I’m going to have you all in tears.” They don’t even pretend to be subtle about their attempts to manipulate your emotions, it’s hilarious.
02. Patrick Wilson is beautiful.
03. I’m mostly indifferent to Claire Danes. There was something weird about the way she played her role in this one, something to do with her pronunciation of each individual syllable in each individual word she had to say. It was like how she over-pronounced everything in Romeo & Juliet the Claire Danes one.
04. Hugh Dancy plays a very convincing drunk. I usually hate drunk people in movies because it’s usually someone’s idea of what they think a drunk person sounds like, but this was fairly convincing. He has very watery eyes.
05. I nearly died at the audience reaction when Buddy kissed Harris. There was this theatre-wide sharp intake of breath as if no one expected it to happen and we were all like “Really? You’re really shocked by this?” Oh my.
06. I like how even when Meryl Streep is in a film for ten minutes tops, she still completely pwns the scene. Oh Meryl Streep, is there anything you can’t do?
07. 1950s home decor and fashion are awesome, ergo that aspect of the film was entirely too satisfying.
08. I love how they thought they were really clever in having Buddy randomly get hit by a car instead of drowning to death after jumping off The Cliff of Instantaneous and Completely Fatal Death into the Sea of Limb-Ripping Despair and Desolation. It kind of killed me how the filmmakers were playing up this cliff and its accompanying watery grave in this overly obvious “OMG GUESS HOW HE DIES” kind of way and then they were like “HAHAHA NO HE DOESN’T DIE LIKE THAT, WE TRICKED YOU!” Except it wasn’t a satisfying trick, it was just lame and obnoxious. That said, if Buddy had drowned, I would have called that lame and obvious, so basically they can’t win.
09. I inexplicably loved the piano player at the dive Ann was singing at.
10. I really wish Natasha Richardson would stop dying her hair blonde because it makes her eyebrows look ridiculously frightening. Then again, if I was married to Liam Neeson, I probably wouldn’t worry about these things.