Rom Com style films are a dime a dozen these days but with the knowledge that a really good one is harder to find on the big screen as a big hit than say an action packed special effects spoof.
'Trainwreck' is one of those rom coms that sit on the fence's edge in the sense that one can't quite make ones mind up as to whether its actually good or bad.
It is a low budget film with hazy camera lens effects and a limited setting.
The plot is easy and a familiar one: girl meets boy, girl and boy fall in love, girl or boy fears love and then finally find a resolution to their relationship. This is all done in three acts in the classical scenario of the time old three act structure.
The roles are reversed which has also been done before i.e the girl is the runaway bride escaping from commitment. A few films in this model and within this genre have been seen before of course and although this could easily be a home movie it does still hold a few distinguishing characteristics.
Its redeeming factors as a film are its characters and their interactions and dialogue which are well defined.
The acting is fairly good and natural, with each scene almost shot only once and even with few hiccups left in there to make it look more real rather than rehearsed or re-edited. Real life is like that after all and cannot be re-shot or re-filmed.
The natural type dialogue- even with certain words mumbled at the end of sentences as though as an after thought at times- aids the humour because it makes it easy going, honest, pragmatic and gives it more of a feel of wry sarcasm as well as realism often found in situation comedy. It is a kind of sit com humour and we can imagine the characters actually having the personalities of the characters they play in the movie.
The best aspect of the film, other than the humour, is probably its character development and the film could thus easily be a very successful stage play with the right actors. Not much in terms of cinematic trickery is required, just funny dialogue and strongly developed characters.
The heroine in the story is supported by the father figure and sister, so sibling and parental relationships are developed, with the sister playing the mirror opposite of the main character and mirroring her faults to her to help her believe in herself and in her relationships. The father as the lovable rascal who initially makes his daughter commitment phobic because he does not believe in monogamy is the source of her inner conflict and she resolves this eventually through her ability to decide on committing to the love of a good man, here the sports doctor. The latter makes her face her inner demons of fear and loss or rejection as she finds her way back to long lasting love with the right person.
There are a few off the wall scenes with sports personalities playing a big role in the film, such as LeBron, as well as a known sports commentator and certain famous faces making a few minutes appearances in the intervention scene. These scenes feel forced and commercial but they do not hide the fact that they are there for advertising the film or the game or even a particular player and his home town in particular.
This did bring the film down a notch or two but didn't bother me personally since the characters are still well defined funny and likable and since I personally have a soft spot for Cleveland Ohio as it holds dear memories for me of visiting relatives who live there and it being an underestimated city generally, or at least in my opinion.
So all in all, these commercial gimmicks do not bother me as much as they may do others.
This is a film about modern relationships and the patterns of love or fear that we may or may not carry with us from our past and families or our role models growing up, so that although it may be repetitive as a plot or genre, the story stays enjoyable from a raw emotional point of view with not a voyeur's eye into an odd world nor a visceral eye in the sense of a roller coaster ride of emotions but with an eye which allows us to identify with the characters and feel with their plight as we look upon them with a cognitive eye, recognising their issues even if we do not agree with them or have experience of them ourselves.
Train tracks can be one way tracks for some in some shape or form and once on a train we cannot change track or get off it, but a train can be derailed or wrecked and this can lead to a change of direction completely in life or to a new lease on life so to speak.
This is the message ultimately in the movie: a one way ticket to a new destination figuratively speaking.
All aboard!
'Trainwreck' is one of those rom coms that sit on the fence's edge in the sense that one can't quite make ones mind up as to whether its actually good or bad.
It is a low budget film with hazy camera lens effects and a limited setting.
The plot is easy and a familiar one: girl meets boy, girl and boy fall in love, girl or boy fears love and then finally find a resolution to their relationship. This is all done in three acts in the classical scenario of the time old three act structure.
The roles are reversed which has also been done before i.e the girl is the runaway bride escaping from commitment. A few films in this model and within this genre have been seen before of course and although this could easily be a home movie it does still hold a few distinguishing characteristics.
Its redeeming factors as a film are its characters and their interactions and dialogue which are well defined.
The acting is fairly good and natural, with each scene almost shot only once and even with few hiccups left in there to make it look more real rather than rehearsed or re-edited. Real life is like that after all and cannot be re-shot or re-filmed.
The natural type dialogue- even with certain words mumbled at the end of sentences as though as an after thought at times- aids the humour because it makes it easy going, honest, pragmatic and gives it more of a feel of wry sarcasm as well as realism often found in situation comedy. It is a kind of sit com humour and we can imagine the characters actually having the personalities of the characters they play in the movie.
The best aspect of the film, other than the humour, is probably its character development and the film could thus easily be a very successful stage play with the right actors. Not much in terms of cinematic trickery is required, just funny dialogue and strongly developed characters.
The heroine in the story is supported by the father figure and sister, so sibling and parental relationships are developed, with the sister playing the mirror opposite of the main character and mirroring her faults to her to help her believe in herself and in her relationships. The father as the lovable rascal who initially makes his daughter commitment phobic because he does not believe in monogamy is the source of her inner conflict and she resolves this eventually through her ability to decide on committing to the love of a good man, here the sports doctor. The latter makes her face her inner demons of fear and loss or rejection as she finds her way back to long lasting love with the right person.
There are a few off the wall scenes with sports personalities playing a big role in the film, such as LeBron, as well as a known sports commentator and certain famous faces making a few minutes appearances in the intervention scene. These scenes feel forced and commercial but they do not hide the fact that they are there for advertising the film or the game or even a particular player and his home town in particular.
This did bring the film down a notch or two but didn't bother me personally since the characters are still well defined funny and likable and since I personally have a soft spot for Cleveland Ohio as it holds dear memories for me of visiting relatives who live there and it being an underestimated city generally, or at least in my opinion.
So all in all, these commercial gimmicks do not bother me as much as they may do others.
This is a film about modern relationships and the patterns of love or fear that we may or may not carry with us from our past and families or our role models growing up, so that although it may be repetitive as a plot or genre, the story stays enjoyable from a raw emotional point of view with not a voyeur's eye into an odd world nor a visceral eye in the sense of a roller coaster ride of emotions but with an eye which allows us to identify with the characters and feel with their plight as we look upon them with a cognitive eye, recognising their issues even if we do not agree with them or have experience of them ourselves.
Train tracks can be one way tracks for some in some shape or form and once on a train we cannot change track or get off it, but a train can be derailed or wrecked and this can lead to a change of direction completely in life or to a new lease on life so to speak.
This is the message ultimately in the movie: a one way ticket to a new destination figuratively speaking.
All aboard!
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