What was spectacular about the Spectacular Now was the acting and the actors. Both sank into their roles in a way that I don’t often see in a movie with teenagers and for that alone this movie is worth seeing.* I had problems with the ending–it felt revised and tacked on in an unsatisfying way–and I didn’t feel a tremendous depth, a problem I solved by reading the novel, which was quite good.**
Cost: $7.00
Where watched: Living Room Theaters with S. North.
*There were a lot of interesting non-standard teen movie things to like about this movie.
**In novel/book comparisons, I observed that it is very difficult to bring to the movie screen a book character like Aimee, the female protagonist/lead. I think the problem is that everything is shiny in the movies, making it difficult to project the inherent awkwardness/uncool persona that easily comes across on the page. Nerds live in books, easily. They don’t really exist well on the silver screen.
I saw this movie with a bunch of women in their 40s and 50s and most of them expressed frustration/unhappiness with Aimee's character. While I agreed with them on one level, I felt that her actions were extremely realistic nonetheless. Most girls that age are desperate to hold on to their first love no matter what he/she does. I felt like these women had forgotten what uncertainty and low self-esteem felt like (or perhaps they're amongst the lucky few who never felt it). I really enjoyed the acting of both young actors.
Oh my god, yes! She was just so relieved that someone liked her–and someone as charming as Sutter was that much more of an unbelievable amazing thing. Of course she would do whatever to keep him around. I thought she was a great character, both strong and weak wrapped up together. And Sutter brought out some of the strength.
I just watched the trailer. I think we need to see this. It is still showing in our local theater just down the street.