Life Itself (Dan Fogelman)

[TGM]

LIFE ITSELF

Director: Dan Fogelman

imdb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5989218/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

[TGM]

Apparently everyone hates this movie? Calling it this year's Collateral Beauty, even? But... I actually liked it. Quite a bit, in fact. *shrug*

[Ivan Drago]

There's a lot to like from the stellar performances from everyone involved to the beautiful way Fogelman crafts the feeling we're watching something intimate and personal with his camera. . .but they're all hindered by some of the most cringe-worthy, pretentious dialogue straight out of a film student's senior thesis screenplay. It doesn't help when the major plot developments are predictable from a mile away, and the characters are devoid of personality and one-dimensional. It tries really hard to be clever when it's grasping at straws with all its messages, and it's even harder to care for the characters who show up all of a sudden for the entire second half when the movie jarringly whips away from its main storyline to one that's unrelated and hackneyed. But it may just be impossible to find something worth investing in this movie to begin with, because the movie feels like the film adaptation for an inspirational Facebook meme.