It pretty much ignited the careers of director Destin Daniel Cretton and actor Brie Larson who has since won an Oscar since her breakthrough role.
Now four years later, and the two are back together again with this intriguing true story.
The trailers certainly intrigued me, and ever since I saw Larson in Room, I will pretty much watch anything she is in now.
The film hooked me in from the first scene and I could already see this was going to be quite a story. I was seeing similar themes and characters to that of one of my favourite films of last year Captain Fantastic. However in this one, the family is more a dysfunctional one
While it's not feel as deep and meaningful as that, it still had lots going for it that I got invested with.
It also reminded me of Saving Mr. Banks, especially the scenes with Colin Farrell.
The longer it went on, the more surprised I was at how profound and meaningful it was all becoming and it we ended with quite the deserved tear-jerking finale.
All of the cast were pretty exceptional. There were lots of strong performances that I would personally have in contention for awards at this moment in the year. Woody Harrelson lead the way with a strong performance that just grew and grew and was deserving of being involved in a tearful ending.
As I mentioned before, I think I've fallen in love with Brie Larson and she gives us another memorable performance. Her character is so strong-willed and Larson and shows that throughout and her relationship with Harrelson's character was integral to the success of telling this story.
It was not just Larson who player her character, but also Ella Anderson and Chandler Head were just terrific as the younger versions of Larson's character. Anderson was real star. Her chemistry with Harrelson was as strong if not better then with Larson.
I do have one disappointment in the acting, and that was Max Greenfield. I felt his character did not gel well with Larson's character and was not feel believable to me. If his character in real life was actually like that, then fair enough. But his characters reasoning for being involved in this story felt illogical.
One actor that I had no idea was involved until I saw the cast list afterwards was Sarah Snook. If you have not seen Predestination, watch that as Snook is phenomenal. It's great to see her again. But I hope she gets more leading roles in the future.
Despite a lot of high praise, there were moments where the story and characters contradict themselves. But I don't think that was enough to ruin my overall enjoyment. It might think twice about my views on the film after typing this.
When I noticed that flat with the film, it made me think that some demographics might get the wrong end of the stick with this and think that the film is making light of a story that is actually rather dark in real life. I can somewhat agree to that as apparantly the real ending is not as sentimental as the films. But I felt there was enough dark moments to make me understand the horrible situation our characters are involved with.
But despite the directors vision being slightly different, the whole film moved me and gave me very inspiring and profound messages by the end of it. It is all thanks to the performances who made this such a nice surprise.
Rating: 8/10
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