This is one of the worst movies of the year, maybe decade.
Naomi Watts and Matt Dillion are both 10-15 years too old for the roles the play (they are 45 and 49 at the time of the filming).
Watts plays a woman working at a convenience store and living in a motel with her disabled boyfriend. He worked in construction until he had an accident and now lives on disability and whatever money he can extort selling old useless electronic products he fixes to friends that feel sorry for him. Though he proves he could work when he takes over Watts's convenience store job and allows her to sleep while working the grave yard shift he clearly is more interested in drinking and feeling sorry for himself while sponging off his girlfriend and taxpayers.
There are a bunch of scenes showing their pathetic life and circumstances, stealing gas and dealing with unreliable mass transportation and an unsavory boss etc. Watts has the most ambition which is basically nothing more than considering taking college courses which is laughable at her age and she does nothing to pursue this idea except ask her boss about a program.
They introduce her mother and ex-boyfriend to show where she got her poor decision making and pathetic life. Mom is an alcoholic keeping herself sauced and keeping a roof over her head by having a brood of foster kids she neglects, doesn't feed nor pay any attention to and we learn they have bedbugs and bites to boot. Watts's ex beat her and now stalks her seemingly demonstrating Watts has no self worth and believes Dillion is a good catch since he never hits her. She has settled for a guy that is a total loser, not because he is disabled but because he won't do anything except mooch off her and he is verbally abusive in several scenes.
The crux of the movie is they are so in love and have such a great sex life they end up pregnant. Dillion does nothing to demonstrate he is going to step up and Watts ends up losing her job. As a result they can't pay the motel and they are thrown out. To further demonstrate what a loser Dillion plays his solution is to ask the motel owner to allow his wife to clean rooms. They move in with her mother, there are some stupid conversations and situations, Watts plies her boyfriend with alcohol and then they have a silly fight where she tells him he can't drink like that (huh, then why give him her mother's alcohol?!) and he ends up leaving. Her solution is to go to her ex and beg him for money, she goes and gets a quickie abortion, eats a bag of donuts and finds out her boyfriend has been outside her mother's house all day. She tells him she ended the pregnancy, he basically doesn't care and wants to be with her, they hug and kiss, the end.
Oh and the title of the movies basically exemplifies how pointless this movie is, the title is the name of the convenience store she works at part of the movie. Pretty poignant! There is nothing redeeming about this movie and overall the movie is pointless and meaningless. The message is America sucks and you can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you are forever trapped in poverty, it is cyclical and there is no American Dream possible. If that is what you think of the country and you want to see someone else who believes that depict 90 minutes of how they envision that to play out than be my guest to waste your time. But don't say you weren't warned!
Naomi Watts and Matt Dillion are both 10-15 years too old for the roles the play (they are 45 and 49 at the time of the filming).
Watts plays a woman working at a convenience store and living in a motel with her disabled boyfriend. He worked in construction until he had an accident and now lives on disability and whatever money he can extort selling old useless electronic products he fixes to friends that feel sorry for him. Though he proves he could work when he takes over Watts's convenience store job and allows her to sleep while working the grave yard shift he clearly is more interested in drinking and feeling sorry for himself while sponging off his girlfriend and taxpayers.
There are a bunch of scenes showing their pathetic life and circumstances, stealing gas and dealing with unreliable mass transportation and an unsavory boss etc. Watts has the most ambition which is basically nothing more than considering taking college courses which is laughable at her age and she does nothing to pursue this idea except ask her boss about a program.
They introduce her mother and ex-boyfriend to show where she got her poor decision making and pathetic life. Mom is an alcoholic keeping herself sauced and keeping a roof over her head by having a brood of foster kids she neglects, doesn't feed nor pay any attention to and we learn they have bedbugs and bites to boot. Watts's ex beat her and now stalks her seemingly demonstrating Watts has no self worth and believes Dillion is a good catch since he never hits her. She has settled for a guy that is a total loser, not because he is disabled but because he won't do anything except mooch off her and he is verbally abusive in several scenes.
The crux of the movie is they are so in love and have such a great sex life they end up pregnant. Dillion does nothing to demonstrate he is going to step up and Watts ends up losing her job. As a result they can't pay the motel and they are thrown out. To further demonstrate what a loser Dillion plays his solution is to ask the motel owner to allow his wife to clean rooms. They move in with her mother, there are some stupid conversations and situations, Watts plies her boyfriend with alcohol and then they have a silly fight where she tells him he can't drink like that (huh, then why give him her mother's alcohol?!) and he ends up leaving. Her solution is to go to her ex and beg him for money, she goes and gets a quickie abortion, eats a bag of donuts and finds out her boyfriend has been outside her mother's house all day. She tells him she ended the pregnancy, he basically doesn't care and wants to be with her, they hug and kiss, the end.
Oh and the title of the movies basically exemplifies how pointless this movie is, the title is the name of the convenience store she works at part of the movie. Pretty poignant! There is nothing redeeming about this movie and overall the movie is pointless and meaningless. The message is America sucks and you can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you are forever trapped in poverty, it is cyclical and there is no American Dream possible. If that is what you think of the country and you want to see someone else who believes that depict 90 minutes of how they envision that to play out than be my guest to waste your time. But don't say you weren't warned!