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For me this film was a serious disappointment. It does manage to shock at times, but the film missteps right at the start when it fails to give any sort of initial development of the main characters. The film jumps much too quickly into the transformation of Wood's character, never letting us know how she was before. We are lead to identify that she is a good girl because she owned cute little socks, and that is about all. Holly Hunter does great with what she has, but she too is short changed by the script, giving her only a few scenes to leave an impression. In the end, Wood's character comes off as an annoying and inconsiderate brat, and Hunter's character as a nice but ultimately very poor mother.
We are supposed to feel bad for the mother, but given the clueless way she acts throughout the film most of the sympathy is removed. The fall from grace experienced by Wood's character could have been seen as tragic, but instead the film spends way too much time documenting her fall and far too little setting it up. Why should we care about Wood's character when the filmmakers could care less for her? She is merely a prop, thrust into agonizing scene after scene just to shock the audiences even further.
The subject matter of the film is a rich and understudied topic, hardly ever done right, and this film comes out as a huge missed opportunity. These characters are not defined, and the story is loose and lacking any sort of structure. The film is also much too assaulting, constantly blaring this loud and miserable alternative music as a way to oft-put the audience. With subject matter like this, a long full shot take would speak much more powerfully on its own, without pretentious musical cues to guide our emotions. This script plays like it is written by a kid, and it is no surprise that teen actor Nikki Reed co-scripted it.
The end result is a seriously flawed and disappointing movie. This should have been so much better. Rent REQUIEM FOR A DREAM instead.
\"The Night HE Came Home\"
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