All the Wrong Reasons (2013)

How sad is this?

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

James Ascher (Cory Monteith) is the manager of a department chainstore. His wife Kate (Karine Vanasse) is anxiety-ridden and monitors the security cameras. Nicole Cambria (Emily Hampshire) is the single-mom cashier struggling with money and her deadbeat ex-husband. Simon Brunson (Kevin Zegers) is a firefighter who recently lost his hand and takes a security job at the store.I love the introduction of these characters. The actors are all talented. It's set up for a great movie but the story doesn't move fast enough. At almost two hours, the movie is over-extended. It needs to be thirty minutes shorter and a lot tighter. There is great stuff in here but the movie needs more intensity.

All the Wrong Reasons (2013): Dir: Gia Milani / Cast: Cory Monteith, Karine Vanasse, Kevin Zegers, Emily Hampshire, Denis Theriault: Excellent independent Canadian film about decisions and intent. Cory Monteith, in one of his final roles, plays James Ascher, the manager of a supermarket with hopes of becoming regional manager posted in Toronto. Karine Vanasse plays Kate, James's wife. She monitors the security cameras at the store while chowing down fortune cookies. She suffers from depression after witnessing the suicide of her sister a year earlier. She relies on prescription pills to deal with issues involving physical touch. Kevin Zegers plays Simon, new at the store although he yearns to get his old job as a fire fighter back. His left hand is a hook after an accident but he is determined to regain his dignity. Emily Hampshire plays a scheming cashier who engages James in an affair. She manipulates the ultimate downfall with a climax that delivers with a terrific comic resolution. She is an unfit mother often pawning off her child on others while the father is another reject of equal lack of morals. Denis Theriault adds comic relief as a fellow employee ass kissing his way to a promotion and just plainly coming off as annoying to Monteith. Director Gia Milani scores with an awesome cast and an inventive location in the department store. It deals with themes of depression while maintaining a witty comic edge. Of its four main characters, two move forward while two take deserving reverse routes. In the end it is one of the best films of the year for all the right reasons. Score: 10 / 10

I've learned not to take seriously the category given to films by Optimum on Demand, which is where I saw All the Wrong Reasons. They have it listed as a "comedy" which is as absurd as listing "Ghostbusters" as a horror film. So I paid and started watching knowing almost nothing about it. I was quite pleasantly surprised. It's actually a drama about some working class young people somewhere (I'm not sure where exactly) in Canada, working in a Walmart-type store, and the relationships and interactions of a handful of characters. I could see how some viewers might find it boring, as it's more about the psychologies of the characters than it is focused on any great action or plot. Two of the main characters suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; how they each deal and cope with their personal experience and symptoms is the theme of the film. Needless to say, they come out at the end better for all that's happened. If you like a film that's primarily about people, their relationships and emotions, then you quite likely will like this. It's engrossing and well done, IMHO.

Straight out you should know this movie made me so bored, and was so very predictable that I spent most of it moving furniture around in my apartment. (Bachelor suite, but still) However, this is a decent romantic comedy (sans comedy) made in Canada filled with Canadian talent who are all very good, and deeply committed to their rolls. The story is sound, under everything you have a life lesson about how people touch other people, and we effect each other in a variety of ways, good, and bad. Then the four main characters who each have a story that is unique to them as far as they are concerned. two PTSD survivors who need each other to grow, and the man left behind who only has eyes on the future, and his own gratification. Rounding out the quartet is the other woman who still thinks of herself as a girl, and continually does very negligent things in the time when she should be focusing on her Son, just so that she can feel needed by someone she thinks matters. So yes, I moved the furniture around in my apartment, but I also watched a pretty decent movie that just happens to be a real dark, and sometimes boring downer, but that is life isn't it? I have to tell you I guess that I did Enjoy this movie in the end, all of the loose ends are tied up in perfect, and imperfect little bows, and to each is their own. So I recommend this to people who like people who need people, and to other folks to.Jesse of www.jesse.ca