Angelina Jolie is good (although she seems older than her boyfriend in the film), and Dennis Quaid nearly walks away with it too - they give the most nuanced performances, i'd say, with a script that skims over the surface of necessity, since there are so many vignettes, not giving anything enough time to develop.
the scene when the theatrical director throws her new boyfriend out because she is projecting trouble ahead felt very real - it is a playing out of an instinct that some of us may know, and there are true sparks of humor between them, and it's sexier than any other physical relationship going on - but the drawn-out scenario of some of the others just did not ring true or matter: the older couple are not focussing on what's really troubling them and fill up the time with discussion of an old love affair - totally tedious! and the actors worked hard to make it real. the relationship between the mother and her AIDs afflicted son was well played out - but i felt they had to rush to get it in - but it was affecting and well played, well written. (it felt like stage dialogue which ordinarily i do not like in a film).
middling worthwhile to watch in the end, (although i liked the scene of Trent in bed with a huge dog). altogether not very gripping - surprising that so many great actors were in it, and that the film received so much attention.
the scene when the theatrical director throws her new boyfriend out because she is projecting trouble ahead felt very real - it is a playing out of an instinct that some of us may know, and there are true sparks of humor between them, and it's sexier than any other physical relationship going on - but the drawn-out scenario of some of the others just did not ring true or matter: the older couple are not focussing on what's really troubling them and fill up the time with discussion of an old love affair - totally tedious! and the actors worked hard to make it real. the relationship between the mother and her AIDs afflicted son was well played out - but i felt they had to rush to get it in - but it was affecting and well played, well written. (it felt like stage dialogue which ordinarily i do not like in a film).
middling worthwhile to watch in the end, (although i liked the scene of Trent in bed with a huge dog). altogether not very gripping - surprising that so many great actors were in it, and that the film received so much attention.