Jam (2006)

You won't be disappointed!

good back-story, and good acting

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

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This had 'Lifetime Channel' written all over it. I expected something a little more edgy. Like 'Crash'. As the movie goes along the conflicts develop, smolder, and erupt. But in the last fifteen minutes everything is happily resolved. All the uncomfortable, violent hatreds and bitter resentments dissolve. The bad old car thieves are shown to be just a pair of softies. The angry son and his alcoholic father share a tearful embrace. The three jealous friends who boffed, or were boffed, by the same guy are somewhat reconciled upon revelation of a mildly amusing bit of irony. The audience is allowed to breathe a collective 'Aaaaaahhhhh' of satisfaction. Everything turns out just as it should. In other words, like it never really turns out. I stayed with this film because of the direction, but I ended up watching a cinematic Hallmark card. No doubt this will appeal to a significant audience, but it's not the sort film that appeals to me.

Such a simple idea perfected with a fantastic script and excellent cast. Marianne Jean-Bapiste, who was nominated for an Academy for her part in Secrets and Lies, was an amazing addition to this fine group of actors. Very fresh and fun. I was sad when it was over. There are 5 interwoven stories that all focus on fatherhood. A single father with his two young children trying to figure it out, a lesbian couple having a baby aided by some criminals in a stolen RV, a yuppie couple deciding if they want a baby, a woman getting married who is strongly weighing the father potential of her husband-to-be and a conflicted father/ teen-age son relationship that must get worse before it gets better. Dan Byrd, who plays the teenager gave the best performance in the film, in my view! I am very much looking forward to more work by this writing team, Craig Serling and Nicole Lonner, and first time director, Craig Serling.

After seeing so many mediocre movies in a row, this was definitely a breath of fresh air. To describe it I would say it's one of those off-beat films not driven by a plot but by characters. It reminded me a lot of The Breakfast Club in more ways than one.As far as the actors, all of them were great and their characters were well defined and easy to relate to. In Fact, another movie to compare this to might be Glengary Glen Ross. It's not the story but the cast that make these films fun to watch. Jam had a great cast.While I just compared Jam to two classics, I wouldn't necessarily rank it in that category, but I do think it certainly deserves better than it's current IMDb ranking of 5.3. I give it an 8.

I saw this at the Boston Film Festival and it's quite a good movie. It has lots going for it, especially two things: A strong ensemble cast with favorites like Tess Harper and William Forsythe, made even stronger by the solid Amanda Detmer, who has charisma galore, and the sexy Jeffery Dean Morgan. Rrrrrrrrrrrr. Secondly, it shows strong work by first-time feature director, Craig Serling. His directing is confident and efficient and watchable. His background in editing pays off here in his deft storytelling. Juggling so many story lines couldn't have been easy.At turns funny and poignant, it was a crowd pleaser at the festival with good reason.