(This review contains some possible mild spoilers.)
One viewer, in his/her comments that I read before seeing this film, said in effect 'this movie gives indie films a bad name.' While I wouldn't go that far, and I DID find it entertaining, I also marvel at its needless, jarring non sequiturs in its story and many wasted opportunities to show character depth and development.
The plus side includes -- the scenery was beautiful and the camera captured that. I thought the casting was good and all played well what they had to work with. The young Bo (de Angelis) was a treat.
The married couple, Charlie and Arlene, non-drug using hippies, lived an almost idyllic Robinson Crusoe existence on the fringes of civilization. Arlene was part Native American in touch with many herbal remedies. Charlie was an excellent mechanic capable of building or fixing most anything. They home schooled their precocious daughter, Bo. The film is mainly a series of slice of life episodes when she was eleven.
On the minus side are the flaws, among them --
-- when a character becomes depressed, they fortunately come into possession of some unnamed anti-depressant pills. The film gives a surprisingly good, accurate enough demonstration of the type of reaction some people get when taking too high doses of anti-PSYCHOTIC meds, such as Haldol. But meds like Haldol are NOT anti-DEPRESSANTS and would not be used for the type of depression either the pills' original owner demonstrated -- or that the pills' taker had.
-- One character suddenly blossoms into being a professional artist whose paintings are in high demand -- with no indication of any previous professional training or artistic skill. Yes, Grandma Moses did that but she remained always a primitive and her paintings are obviously primitive (unmentored) art.
-- And a child with a credit card buys and has delivered a $20-25k Cape Dory 25 sailboat which, miraculously, turns out to be a helpful thing to have done. The sale of painting for $7k pays for it.
That's just a few of the many needless (IMO) bumps to continuity.
The director and screenwriter seem adept at having something suddenly happen to which people react but seem usually unconcerned about making the something that happens fit in logically.
But there's more to like than dislike in the film. I just wish the screenwriter and director had made the movie it could easily have been.
One viewer, in his/her comments that I read before seeing this film, said in effect 'this movie gives indie films a bad name.' While I wouldn't go that far, and I DID find it entertaining, I also marvel at its needless, jarring non sequiturs in its story and many wasted opportunities to show character depth and development.
The plus side includes -- the scenery was beautiful and the camera captured that. I thought the casting was good and all played well what they had to work with. The young Bo (de Angelis) was a treat.
The married couple, Charlie and Arlene, non-drug using hippies, lived an almost idyllic Robinson Crusoe existence on the fringes of civilization. Arlene was part Native American in touch with many herbal remedies. Charlie was an excellent mechanic capable of building or fixing most anything. They home schooled their precocious daughter, Bo. The film is mainly a series of slice of life episodes when she was eleven.
On the minus side are the flaws, among them --
-- when a character becomes depressed, they fortunately come into possession of some unnamed anti-depressant pills. The film gives a surprisingly good, accurate enough demonstration of the type of reaction some people get when taking too high doses of anti-PSYCHOTIC meds, such as Haldol. But meds like Haldol are NOT anti-DEPRESSANTS and would not be used for the type of depression either the pills' original owner demonstrated -- or that the pills' taker had.
-- One character suddenly blossoms into being a professional artist whose paintings are in high demand -- with no indication of any previous professional training or artistic skill. Yes, Grandma Moses did that but she remained always a primitive and her paintings are obviously primitive (unmentored) art.
-- And a child with a credit card buys and has delivered a $20-25k Cape Dory 25 sailboat which, miraculously, turns out to be a helpful thing to have done. The sale of painting for $7k pays for it.
That's just a few of the many needless (IMO) bumps to continuity.
The director and screenwriter seem adept at having something suddenly happen to which people react but seem usually unconcerned about making the something that happens fit in logically.
But there's more to like than dislike in the film. I just wish the screenwriter and director had made the movie it could easily have been.