Lullaby (2014)

Very well executed

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

Watched this movie about a family dealing with a loved one's final days after having fought cancer for years. The cast was solid all around but the script is where this movie fails its audience. Jennifer Hudson,who plays a nurse on the cancer floor,is portrayed as a crass,crude and heartless person who insists that visiting hours are over and complains that too many people are crowding her hallway. Its extremely disrespectful to all the hard working nurses who are on the front line of advanced cancer patients,doing their best to provide comfort and compassion to the dying. No nurse would EVER tell a family member that a patient would have to wait to be cleaned up if they soiled their bed as Hudson's character does in this movie. They would move as quickly as possible to help. It is because of scenes like this that really brings this film way down....

Review: What a touching movie! This deep emotional drama really did touch me and the great performances from the actors, especially Richard Jenkins and the little kids, made this film a joy to watch. Richard Jenkins plays Robert, whose is a successful business man, suffering with terminal cancer. His son, Jonathan (Garrett Hedlund) rushes to be by his bedside but when he arrives at the hospital, his father tells him that he has requested for the machines to be switched off in 48 hours, which have been keeping him alive. Jonathan finds it hard to deal with his decision to end his life and he finds comfort from a young female patient, whilst having a cigarette by the fire escape. He then returns to his father and mother, Rachel (Anne Archer), who also is finding it hard to deal with his decision and when there daughter Karen (Jessica Brown Findlay) arrives, Robert tells them that he has left most of his money to various charities that need it, which doesn't go down to well with Karen and Jonathan. Karen then tells the family that she has taken out an injunction to stop her father from taking his own life and her troubled relationship with her brother, causes them to argue in front of there parents. After a while, the family come together and have a meal in the chapel, we're there mother breaks down because she doesn't know how she's going to live without any money. Jonathan then meets up with his old girlfriend, Emily (Amy Adams), who manages to calm him down and explains to him why there relationship broke down. He also manages to have a decent conversation with his sister and there father tells Karen that he would consider not going ahead with the suicide if she can come out with a good enough reason for him to stay alive. While she is putting together her case, Jonathan helps out the same patient that he had a cigarette with, by taking her to a prom, which the other patients put together in the hospital. He then spends the night with his father and Karen brings her case forward in the morning. Although her case is a good one, Robert still wants to go ahead with the suicide and now that the family have come together as one, they agree to his conditions. Dr. Crier (Terence Howard), turns off the machines with Roberts family by his side and they show there love for there father/husband while he slowly passes away. Emotional! I did shed a tear near the end but watching him in pain was just as bad. The spoilt kids bickering did get on my nerves because they were constantly being really selfish, without thinking about there poor mum who, practically lived in the hospital. Nurse Carrie (Jennifer Hudson), brought some needed wit to the movie and Richard Jenkins stayed upbeat to the end. You do need to be in the right frame of mind to watch the film because it is quite depressing but it's an illness that is affecting many people's life's in day to day life. Anyway, I really enjoyed this movie and I definitely recommend it to people who are into there emotional dramas. Enjoyable!Round-Up: Garrett Hedlund, 31, first hit the big screen in 2004 in Troy, which isn't a bad way to start your career in cinema and he's also starred in Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers, Eragon, Death Sentence, Tron: Legacy, Country Strong, On The Road, Inside Llewyn Davis and Unbroken. He also plays Hook in the upcoming Pan and he stars alongside Oscar Isaac and Mark Wahlberg  in Mojave so his career has been pretty impressive so far. He did act like a spoilt brat in this movie but once he sorted himself out, he actually didn't turn out to be a bad guy. This is the first movie written and directed by Andrew Levitas, 38, who didn't do a bad job with this delicate subject. He got the most out of the impressive cast and for his first project, he really did show the different sides of how a family dealing with cancer. I recommend this movie to people who are into their dramatic movies starring Amy Adams, Richard Jenkins, Terrence Howard, Jennifer Hudson, Garrett Hedlund, Anne Archer and Jessica Brown Findlay. 6/10

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with reviewers on this site, as I found this film one of the most depressing I've seen in quite awhile. I imagine the writer and director, Andrew Levitas, wanted to bring forth the messages of enjoy life while you can and be open with family and friends, and while there is some poignancy near the end of the movie, I just found the road to get there a slow and torturous one.The characters and dialog came across to me as wooden and stilted, like they were just saying their lines but I never got a sense of really knowing them. Additionally, it seemed like the cast occasionally would come out with an ad-lib or "inside joke" where they all laughed, but when I spot this in a film it really annoys me.The story, often told in flashbacks, revolves around the rich matriarch of the family, Robert Weinstein (Richard Jenkins) wanting to have his doctor (Terrence Howard) help him in an assisted suicide. Robert has managed to stay alive 12 years , after getting an initial prognosis that he would be dead in 6 months. However, now he's tired of all the debilitating procedures that he has endured and wants to end it all.So his estranged son Jonathan (Garrett Hedlund) is returning to New York, although still filled with anger and resentment, to join his mother Rachel (Anne Archer) and sister Karen (Jessica Brown Findlay) at the hospital. Thus, the bulk of the movie centers on the family dynamics playing out in a 24 hour period, which to me, as mentioned were filled with morose, depressive, and melodramatic scenes.There's a side story here, where Jonathan befriends 17-year-old Meredith at the hospital, who is terminally ill with bone cancer. Levitas makes sure we know that all the kids in the cancer ward will never enjoy the life of those who aren't ill.Amy Adams is advertised as a star of the film, but her screen time is limited. She always "lights up the screen" with her charisma, but her character here is half-baked and underdeveloped. I thought it was an affront to the viewer to list her as one of the main attractions here.I don't mean to sound curmudgeonly or mean-spirited here, but unless a viewer is undergoing similar personal themes in their lives and can relate that way, I would not regard this movie as entertainment, but more of an exercise in melancholia, the way it is presented.

Trigger Warning(s): Deals with death of parent and children with cancerWith top billing belonging to Amy Adams, the familiar face of Jessica Brown Findlay from Downton Abbey, and a sad topic which seemed like it would lead to a good cry, what other reasons would you need to see the film?Characters & StoryAfter leaving New York to pursue music in California, Robert's (Richard Jenkins) son Jonathan (Garrett Hedlund) returns only a day or so before Robert, after 12 years, is ready to die. Something his daughter Karen (Jessica Brown Findlay) refuses to let happen. But, with only a day, or so, until Robert's Dr. (Terrence Howard) is to perform an assisted suicide of sorts, Karen doesn't have much time to convince her dad to stick around much longer.PraiseThe more and more media I watch when it comes to people having cancer, dealing with family members dying, and other similar themes, I must admit I have built a sort of tolerance. Yet, with this film I found myself getting a bit emotional throughout. For while neither of my own parents are sick, nor anyone I personally know, the performances by both Hedlund and Findlay do bring you to that possible point where you realize that the natural way of the world, unfortunately, is for children to bury their parents.But, it isn't just Hedlund and Findlay, with of course Jenkins being front and center, that get you when watching this film. A side story with Jon dealing with this 17 year old cancer patient named Meredith (Jessica Barden) I think damn near matched the emotional impact of Robert's sickness. Which perhaps is weird to say since Meredith is a stranger to Jon in comparison to his dad, but what Meredith brought to the movie was a more unique, if not rare, angle to dying. For, to my media knowledge, there aren't too many movies or TV shows which focus on kids dying of cancer, and while arguably there is The Fault In Our Stars, I do feel Meredith gave us a more realist depiction of cancer than the optimistic, and arguably romanticized, view The Fault In Our Stars had for most of its movie. In fact, I sort of wish that Jon's sole side story was simply his character developing through hanging around Meredith and his sister more than anything else.CriticismNow, being that this film has a depressing subject matter, naturally it feels long. But being that it is nearly 2 hours, it feels so long that honestly I had to walk away sometimes. What doesn't help things though is as much as it was nice to get to know Jon, I felt the addition of Emily (Amy Adams) wasn't fully necessary to the story and could have been cut. For, after watching the film, I think the sole reason she is included is because she a recognizable name and not because her character really adds to the movie. For as Jon's ex she may let us know how bad he is with expressing his emotions, but with his dad dying it does make you wonder why they needed to go into Jon's love life?Also, I must admit that I felt bored at times when it was just Jon and Robert in a scene together. For while they certainly had chemistry, and issues between them, I just didn't feel that invested in Jon's life overall. Be it because he is a spoiler rich kid who just seemed a tad aimless, or because he seemed only devastated about his dad's death, at first, because he wasn't getting any money. Either way, the only thing which made his character interesting was when he was with the rest of his family, with Meredith, or one of the few scenes he had alone with his sister Karen.Overall: TV ViewingThis is one of those movies which start off strong, but as time goes on it wears out its welcome to the point you start looking at your watch a bit. For while the story will probably affect you emotionally, especially the one with Meredith, I just felt that after a while there was too much focus on Jon's life and not enough on either Robert's suffering, and decision, or how it affected his wife and daughter. Because of that, I am labeling this as "TV Viewing." For if the film wasn't so damn focused on Jon it could have been "Worth Seeing," but be it that the decision was to make Jon center of the universe, it gave the film a serious flaw.Collected Quote(s)"You have to listen, and share, which are two things you suck at. (And) I'm not talking about your bed and your tooth brush. I'm talking about life things, like real things, things that move you, things that make you feel, like a dream or a song." — Lullaby"Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." — Lullaby"I hope some day you become proud of your heritage, that you treat it as a lifeline and not a sentence." — Lullaby