Released at the beginning of the year and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck this film tells the tale of Craig (Keir Gilchrist) a depressed teenage boy from America who panics under pressure and commits himself to a psychiatric ward where he meets a middle aged patient named Bobby (played by the excellent Zach Galifianakis) and a similarly depressed girl named Noelle (the increasingly well known Emma Roberts).
It's a film which attempts to look at the perceptions of what is normal and the different ways people deal with the pressures of life. At it's heart though it is a quirky indie comedy from America, so issues of mental illness background and give depth to the story but are, in my opinion deliberately, secondary to the range of human interaction that goes on anywhere in the world.
The characters are charming and believably damaged, managing to avoid straying into stereotypes for the most part and emphasising their desire for normal human relationships; most of the problems that develop throughout the plot are ones revolving around how the characters relate to each other rather than directly because of their respective illnesses.
I found it charming and heart warming throughout but i have to concede that by it's very nature, this was 'my' kind of film. Quirky, funny, plenty of music references, a couple of good central actors playing likeable but damaged characters and a slight helping of cheesy romance; it ticks a large number of the boxes i'd list for a film i'm almost bound to like.
It suffers a little in the same way most indie rom-coms do from a lack of depth or really serious emotion when you consider the subject matter that it's dealing with but the film's light touch and warm tone mean that i could forgive it this genre flaw and overall i definitely really enjoyed the film.
I'd give it 4/5 but i have a sneaking suspicion that could rise with a few repeat watchings as this kind of film tend to grow on me.
In other news i feel sorry for Tottenham, they didn't play at all badly tonight but lost 1-0 thanks to a mistake from Gomes, making precisely the kind of mistake he'd seemed to edit out of his game in the past few months. If only Peter Crouch had avoided getting sent off in the first leg it really could have panned out very differently. 4 games between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the space of 3 weeks isn't a bad bit of compensation though, hopefully there'll be some great games.
Today's song is one from a Leeds artist named Lone Wolf.
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