Committed (2000)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Joline (Heather Graham) live in New York with her friends and her husband Carl (Luke Wilson). He's an unhappy photographer and leaves her. On a whim, she sets off for Texas. She finds him working in an El Paso paper and decides to help him from afar. She is befriended by his flirtatious neighbor Niko (Goran Visnjic). Then she finds that Carl has new girlfriend Carmen (Patricia Velásquez) who has jealous ex T-Bo (Mark Ruffalo). Joline's brother Jay (Casey Affleck) comes to take her home but she continues to try to help Carl.Heather Graham is a compelling actress. This movie starts with an idea to be a wacky left-of-center comedy. The writing is flat and the movie never gets there. It doesn't have the jokes. It doesn't have the irreverent fun. Graham is left to carry the weight by herself. There are many solid actors but they don't have anything interesting to do.

This movie has a lot of heart. It really tried. You can tell this movie is really trying to develop their characters more thoroughly and more dramatically. It tries to send a nice message about what it means to really try and believe in something. But there are some elements that kind of detract from it. Pros: a) despite her somewhat odd temper, I really like Heather Graham's character. Graham's acting aside, Jo by virtue of being the lead, has received the most development and change throughout the movie. And you know what, she's actually kind of likable, if a little hard to empathize with at times. Might be me, but I always found innocence in characters to be a fresh breath of air in our current day society where everybody is as cynical and sarcastic as I am.b) scene framing was fantastic. The scenes were visually very well done. Maybe it's the lens or something, I don't know. I'm no expert in this sort of thing. but the cinematography in the desert area yielded itself to a sort of surreal semi-dream sequence quality to it, which I felt was very appropriate for this movie. The camera work in the NY set pieces felt rather insular though. Maybe that is what the director was trying to get across, I'm not sure.Cons:a) there are too many subplots We have things like the whole incestuous love subplot which to me made no sense what so ever and served no purpose in the story. The same kind of went with Visnjic. So what if he's interested in her? Where is this going? Does he provide something that Luke Wilson's character does not? What about the lesbian couple that Affleck was sleeping with? Frankly, I felt that a lot of the characters could have been better fleshed out, or cut out entirely to devote more time to the main characters.b) some of the character feels rather artificial and forced This is particularly true of Luke Wilson's character. I mean, why the hell were they even married in the first place? The guy is clearly this wishy-washy, passive-aggressive, indecisive, self-centered man who quite frankly doesn't seem all that emotionally invested in ANY of his relationships in this movie until it is convenient for him. I don't care how much people change, there is only so much suspension of disbelief I can handle before my mind just thinks "bad caricature". The same goes for Visnjic. He's persistent, has a foreign accent, is rugged-looking, has a sensual touch, etc, etc, etc. He's basically your trash-romance novel fantasy stereotype, except REALLY REALLY creepy. What's even weirder is that Graham's character actually ENJOYS this. c) some of characterizations are actually kind of a turn off. Again, this has to do with how the movie presents their characters. Carl feels basically sub-human in his characterization and has no redeemable qualities. (Which, once again, begs the question why the hell did she marry him in the first place.) Visnjic has got creepy written all over him that it's almost comedic. (it's like Fabio with stalker tendencies) Carmen's reaction towards all the crap that has gone wrong in her life is... very understated too. Oh yeah, and I'm still not sure what purpose does Ruffalo's character serve towards the narrative other than play up the redneck stereotype. (which, depending upon how you look at it, can be pretty offensive)So, in summing, not bad, not great. If you can ignore some of the more egregious issues, it's not too bad. But you kind of have to keep up your suspension of disbelief a little.

Horrible waste of talent. Not even worth watching when there is absolutely nothing else to do. My hope against hope is that the actors at least got paid well. Anyway, if you're a fan of Heather's or Luke's, you'll be really disappointed by this big budget student film.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsThe indeed very beautiful Heather Graham is the only thing this totally misguided flick has going for it.The comedy scenes don't work and the story has no focused structure.But Heather gives an engaging performance that just manages to hold your attention throughout.**