When you grow up in a family that society doesn't consider to be "normal" you may wonder if there is anyone else like you. It often comes as a surprise that there are indeed People Like Us.Initially I looked forward to seeing Chris Pine (he's a cutie and I liked him in Star Trek) and Elizabeth Banks (she's pretty and funny in Zack and Miri and a few other comedy roles) but didn't expect such phenomenal acting. I figured it'd be "okay" but not moving. I was pleasantly surprised!
At the start of the film, we meet Sam (Pine) who's a young hot shot driven by money but kind of a jerk. He gets into a jam when a business deal goes wrong (and violates a few laws) and is in desperate need of money to make things right. As he struggles to save his job, he finds out his father has died. His girlfriend expects him to be upset and fly across the country to be with his mother for the funeral.
However, Sam doesn't think much of his father. When they arrive, the tension between him and his mother paints a broader picture. Sam hasn't been home in years. Then a bombshell is dropped on him... His dad wants him to deliver a large sum of cash to a half-sister he never knew existed.
I expected Sam to take the money and run even though I knew there wouldn't be much of a movie of that happened!
As he gets to know his sister and her son, Sam grows into a more mature man and eventually realizes his father wasn't the man he thought he was. As for his sister Frankie (Banks), it was amazing to watch how she tried her hardest as a working single mother despite all the crap life dealt her.
My favorite scene is how she deals with the principal after Josh blew up the school's swimming pool...
I really related to this movie. My own family is a bit different and there have been times I disliked family members and there's been drama. Over the years things have changed we've all changed and most barriers are overcome. The end scene with Sam and Frankie (I won't give it away!) brought tears to my eyes...tears of happiness and hope. It was such a touching moment and gave them (and me) a new perspective on their father.
Most importantly, it reinforced the importance I have for my family. I won't call this a "feel good" movie exactly, but it shows a real, plausible, modern family situation. It gives hope that people can make the best of their situation and choose to embrace it rather than fight it. I wish I could better describe why I love this movie so much, but it's really hard for me to put into words. It's a movie that made me feel something in my heart.
*This review originally appeared on my blog darcyandbrian.com after screening it on a media trip
Buy People Like Us (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (2012) Now
Heartwarming film about finding yourself and connecting through 70s pop music. Bluray has lots more bonuses.Writers Alex Kurtzman and Jody Lambert are best know for their work on Star Trek and Transformers films than "human personal dramas" but, when Kurtzman learned that he had a cousin he never knew existed it sparked an idea which became this film which the package promotes as "from the studio that brought you THE HELP". Like that film, this one will will generate a lot of "referrals from friends" and by word of mouth. While not as the package also states "one of the Year's Very Best" (hey there's a lot of competition out there), it is engrossing and takes some interesting twists and turns, even when the ending seems almost certain.
I see someone prior to me has already posted a "spoiler" which not stating that as their title. But, trust me, there's still another "turn of events" after that which I didn't see coming. I will say no more about that.
Though it's not apparent from either the advertising or the packaging, records (you know those flat discs before CDs), especially 70s rock bands, play an important pop culture part of the film. Like the famous record scene in "Diner" or much of "High Fidelity", the music discussions in this film will ring true with anyone who was collecting during those days.
The DVD version comes with ONE audio commentary with Kurtzman (who directed the film, as well as co-wrote it) and actors Elizabeth Banks and Chris Pine, plus selected scene commentary with Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays Pine's mother. The Bluray combo-pack includes the above plus some really useful bonus features like the 14-minute featurette on the story behind the film (where I learned the info in the first part of my review), a 5 minute "extended scene in the taco shop" (you'll understand when you see the film), the now-requisite "blooper reel" (4-minutes) and 18 minutes of deleted scenes (with helpful introductions by Kurtzman) which are well worth seeing. There's also ANOTHER full-length audio commentary with Kurtzman and Lambert. I did not listen to any of the three audio commentaries so I can't comment on them, but for those with the time they are there.
Hidden in the script are what Pine's character calls " The Six Rules". You need to get nearly through the film to learn what they are but they really are useful. In fact, I wrote them down and have re-read them over the past day or two. I think many of you might as well. Give this film a chance. It's worth your time. And the soundtrack behind the action is definitely cool too!
I hope you found this review both informative and helpful.
Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"
Read Best Reviews of People Like Us (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (2012) Here
(2008 HOLIDAY TEAM) A studio picture with a premise this contrived shouldn't work, but this 2012 family drama works in ways that are quite unexpected and emotionally resonant because a palpable level of truthfulness emerges with the characters even as the plot teeters precariously on credibility issues. First-time filmmaker Alex Kurtzman, a go-to screenwriter of uber-action fare like Star Trek and Mission: Impossible III, based his personal movie on events in his own life when he met his own half-sister for the first time as he turned thirty. The plot focuses on Sam, a slick, 31-year-old huckster of a salesman in the bartering business. Just as he gets snagged by a bad deal that costs him the huge bonus he just secured to pay off long-standing debts, Sam finds out his father, Jerry Harper, a legendary Laurel Canyon record producer, has died, which means he needs to come home to LA for the funeral against his will. Reuniting with his estranged mother Lillian becomes challenging enough, but Sam also discovers that his father left him $150,000 in his shaving kit.The catch is that it comes with instructions to deliver the cash to an 11-year-old named Josh, who happens to be the son of Frankie, a half-sister he didn't know he had. Tempted to keep the cash himself, Sam finds Frankie and follows her to an AA meeting where she shares the sudden news of her father's death and the hurtful anger she feels for not being publicly acknowledged as his daughter. Her pain is what becomes the common bond that she and Sam share and the beginning of a web of lies he tells her in order to build upon his newly discovered family ties. It's this thread of deception that propels Kurtzman's storyline, and the moment you start to feel the movie get phony, he manages to get it back on track through the burgeoning relationship that forms between Sam, Frankie and Josh. Of course, the further Sam delays in telling the truth, the more catastrophic the results. Perceptive performances are critical in pulling off this kind of drama, and Kurtzman coaxes strong work from his cast.
Chris Pine captures Sam's manic energy and evasive nature to a T, and he manages to reveal the vulnerability underneath that shows he never quite gave up on his quest for his father's approval and love. Still etched in my memory as the hot-to-trot bookstore clerk in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Elizabeth Banks has matured as an actress and delivers a genuinely empathetic performance as Frankie, a single mother struggling with a hardscrabble life and a smart, troublemaking son. She and Pine manage a nice rapport that skirts the incest minefield that could have occurred in lesser hands. Too long off the screen and still looking like People Magazine's most beautiful woman, Michelle Pfeiffer makes her few scenes count as the newly widowed Lillian, who met Jerry back in the seventies when she was a former hatcheck girl at the Troubadour and dreamed of becoming the next Joni Mitchell. She succinctly shares her anger toward Sam for his indifference toward Jerry while slowly revealing her own secrets and fears. As the precocious Josh, Michael Hall D'Addario is given lines only an 11-year-old in a mainstream movie would speak, but he is such a likeable young actor that he manages to come across as authentic.
Olivia Wilde has a thankless role as Sam's put-upon girlfriend Hannah, but she provides more depth than the plot device she represents, while indie mainstay Mark Duplass (Humpday) seems to be showing up everywhere these days, this time as Frankie's conveniently available downstairs neighbor. There are cameos from familiar character actor Philip Baker Hall (50/50) as Jerry's attorney friend and Jon Favreau as Sam's belligerent boss. A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) provides the original music, while cinematographer Salvatore Totino (The Da Vinci Code) really captures the vibrancy of LA life beyond the stereotypical images. Kurtzman sometimes abuses quick cuts to emphasize Sam's restlessness, but when the truth is revealed in the story, it reinforces the message he sincerely conveys in appreciating the value of family and the importance of forgiveness. His clever use of home movies to bring this message home results in the heartbreaking impact that was obviously intended. I definitely recommend this surprising movie.
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Went to see this movie and I would go to see it again. Will buy it. Full of great acting, raw feelings, how our decisions effect our lives and the lives of other, and "what if". You never truly know how deep a persons love will go. Gives you a lot to think about. I would highly recommend it.Save 53% Off
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