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$2.50 Reviews
Meet Bill
http://i49.servimg.com/u/f49/16/09/70/40/poste305.jpg
As I sit here after watching Meet Bill, trying to figure out what I just watched, I'm spending a lot of time attempting to get through my head just what the main character's problem is. Here is a man who looks like Aaron Eckhart, just with a slightly larger stomach. He has a sturdy job, a beautiful wife, Jess (Elizabeth Banks), and has a successful family surrounding him, all of whom want the best for him.
[Img_Inline width="275" height="181" Caption="They're totally best friends." align="left"]http://i49.servimg.com/u/f49/16/09/70/40/meet-b10.jpg[/Img_Inline]
He tells us in a voice-over narration that he hates his life. He thinks he's too fat (he stuffs his face with chocolate bars and doughnuts whenever he can), he hates his job (which happens to pay him very well and his boss is his father in-law), and he especially hates hunting wild animals, something his father in-law loves. His life is just so tragic, isn't it? It does actually get worse, although he already seemed determined to feel terrible about himself and everything he has.
The event that kickstarts things, really, is when his wife cheats on him with a news reporter named Chip (Timothy Olyphant). So they're no long on excellent terms, although there's little fighting throughout the film. Their relationship is not given a significant time to develop or even be explored, and I was left wondering why the affair was even mentioned, as it doesn't seem to have much of an impact in regards to the story. Bill is also mentoring a character known only as the Kid (Logan Lerman). The Kid views Bill more as a fatherfigure than anything else, but he's also supposed to be the character Bill looks to in order to start pulling himself together.
Or at least, that's what it seemed like it would be, and also what the film wants to do. But the screenplay is a mess, not taking advantage of this at all. Through the Kid's character, we're shown that Bill really needs to get in touch with his inner child. He's already there, though. He slouches, eats candy whenever he wants, acts like a child a great deal of the time, and so on. He needs to get a heavy dose of "get over yourself" and he needs to begin taking control of his life. He begins to do this as the film progresses, but it's not because of this young character.
[Img_Inline width="275" height="181" Caption="Or maybe they are." align="right"]http://i49.servimg.com/u/f49/16/09/70/40/600ful19.jpg[/Img_Inline]
There's a lack of emotional attachment to any of the characters in Meet Bill. I think this is due to two things. First, we're not given any moments that actually give us insight into what they're feeling. They mostly just go from scene to scene and do whatever it is required at that time, but their characters aren't well-defined. There aren't any times where they stop and sit down to have a conversation about how they're feeling -- not even when the Kid convinces Bill to try drugs.
The second reason for this is because of the way that none of the characters, who we don't really know too much about, are not in the least bit relatable. The Kid is too smart for his own good, yet acts like a child/sexual predator, Bill hates his life but he has little reason for it, his wife cheats on him for some reason, but we're not really sure why (and even after that, she doesn't seem to care about either man), and we could go through the laundry list of characters and list the reasons they won't connect with the audience, but the long story made short is that none of them feel like real human beings.
A lot of the film just doesn't make sense. Characters act without reason, largely unrelated to earlier moments, and it seems like either the script wasn't thouroughly thought through, or a large portion of the film was left on the cutting room floor. The makings of a decent film are here, but these moments are unconnected from the rest of the time we spend with these characters. It feels like a lot of filler was included and content was removed, maybe in the attempt to make a "comedy," which fell flat anyway.
[Img_Inline width="275" height="181" Caption="Happy face." Align="left"]http://i49.servimg.com/u/f49/16/09/70/40/meetbi10.jpg[/Img_Inline]
With some failed comedies, you can, at the very least, tell when the film was trying to make you laugh. The jokes could fall flat, sure, but you can see where the attempt was made. With Meet Bill, I couldn't even tell. It seemed like it wanted to be an awkward indie comedy some of the time, but at others, I wasn't sure what it was trying to do. All I know is that I didn't laugh more than once or twice, and I'm starting to wonder if that was out of pity for a (mostly) talented cast and a complete wreck of a film.
Speaking of the cast, let's go through the cast list. Aaron Eckhart, Elizabeth Banks, Timothy Olyphant, Kristin Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Jessica Alba, Logan Lerman -- these aren't exactly unknown actors. And they're really the only reason to keep watching this film. You want to see how much more lost they can be on-screen. Eckhart was the only one who looked really confident, but it seemed to me like he was doing that in spite of what was going on around him, not because of it. Everyone else looked lost, and that blame should likely be placed on the writing/directing pair of Berni Goldmann and Melisa Wallick. If their screenplay was a mess, I can only imagine how their directing would be.
Meet Bill is a mess that the pretty good cast cannot help save. Not a lot of the film makes sense, none of the characters are in the least bit relatable, motivations never make sense, the interesting bits of the story are missing and replaced with filler, and there's no emotional resonance with anything that happens. There's no reason to watch this film, unless you're a fan of Aaron Eckhart, as he's the most tolerable part.
<color=D6D9DA>_________________________________________________________________________________
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$2.50 Reviews
Meet Bill
http://i49.servimg.com/u/f49/16/09/70/40/poste305.jpg
As I sit here after watching Meet Bill, trying to figure out what I just watched, I'm spending a lot of time attempting to get through my head just what the main character's problem is. Here is a man who looks like Aaron Eckhart, just with a slightly larger stomach. He has a sturdy job, a beautiful wife, Jess (Elizabeth Banks), and has a successful family surrounding him, all of whom want the best for him.
[Img_Inline width="275" height="181" Caption="They're totally best friends." align="left"]http://i49.servimg.com/u/f49/16/09/70/40/meet-b10.jpg[/Img_Inline]
He tells us in a voice-over narration that he hates his life. He thinks he's too fat (he stuffs his face with chocolate bars and doughnuts whenever he can), he hates his job (which happens to pay him very well and his boss is his father in-law), and he especially hates hunting wild animals, something his father in-law loves. His life is just so tragic, isn't it? It does actually get worse, although he already seemed determined to feel terrible about himself and everything he has.
The event that kickstarts things, really, is when his wife cheats on him with a news reporter named Chip (Timothy Olyphant). So they're no long on excellent terms, although there's little fighting throughout the film. Their relationship is not given a significant time to develop or even be explored, and I was left wondering why the affair was even mentioned, as it doesn't seem to have much of an impact in regards to the story. Bill is also mentoring a character known only as the Kid (Logan Lerman). The Kid views Bill more as a fatherfigure than anything else, but he's also supposed to be the character Bill looks to in order to start pulling himself together.
Or at least, that's what it seemed like it would be, and also what the film wants to do. But the screenplay is a mess, not taking advantage of this at all. Through the Kid's character, we're shown that Bill really needs to get in touch with his inner child. He's already there, though. He slouches, eats candy whenever he wants, acts like a child a great deal of the time, and so on. He needs to get a heavy dose of "get over yourself" and he needs to begin taking control of his life. He begins to do this as the film progresses, but it's not because of this young character.
[Img_Inline width="275" height="181" Caption="Or maybe they are." align="right"]http://i49.servimg.com/u/f49/16/09/70/40/600ful19.jpg[/Img_Inline]
There's a lack of emotional attachment to any of the characters in Meet Bill. I think this is due to two things. First, we're not given any moments that actually give us insight into what they're feeling. They mostly just go from scene to scene and do whatever it is required at that time, but their characters aren't well-defined. There aren't any times where they stop and sit down to have a conversation about how they're feeling -- not even when the Kid convinces Bill to try drugs.
The second reason for this is because of the way that none of the characters, who we don't really know too much about, are not in the least bit relatable. The Kid is too smart for his own good, yet acts like a child/sexual predator, Bill hates his life but he has little reason for it, his wife cheats on him for some reason, but we're not really sure why (and even after that, she doesn't seem to care about either man), and we could go through the laundry list of characters and list the reasons they won't connect with the audience, but the long story made short is that none of them feel like real human beings.
A lot of the film just doesn't make sense. Characters act without reason, largely unrelated to earlier moments, and it seems like either the script wasn't thouroughly thought through, or a large portion of the film was left on the cutting room floor. The makings of a decent film are here, but these moments are unconnected from the rest of the time we spend with these characters. It feels like a lot of filler was included and content was removed, maybe in the attempt to make a "comedy," which fell flat anyway.
[Img_Inline width="275" height="181" Caption="Happy face." Align="left"]http://i49.servimg.com/u/f49/16/09/70/40/meetbi10.jpg[/Img_Inline]
With some failed comedies, you can, at the very least, tell when the film was trying to make you laugh. The jokes could fall flat, sure, but you can see where the attempt was made. With Meet Bill, I couldn't even tell. It seemed like it wanted to be an awkward indie comedy some of the time, but at others, I wasn't sure what it was trying to do. All I know is that I didn't laugh more than once or twice, and I'm starting to wonder if that was out of pity for a (mostly) talented cast and a complete wreck of a film.
Speaking of the cast, let's go through the cast list. Aaron Eckhart, Elizabeth Banks, Timothy Olyphant, Kristin Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Jessica Alba, Logan Lerman -- these aren't exactly unknown actors. And they're really the only reason to keep watching this film. You want to see how much more lost they can be on-screen. Eckhart was the only one who looked really confident, but it seemed to me like he was doing that in spite of what was going on around him, not because of it. Everyone else looked lost, and that blame should likely be placed on the writing/directing pair of Berni Goldmann and Melisa Wallick. If their screenplay was a mess, I can only imagine how their directing would be.
Meet Bill is a mess that the pretty good cast cannot help save. Not a lot of the film makes sense, none of the characters are in the least bit relatable, motivations never make sense, the interesting bits of the story are missing and replaced with filler, and there's no emotional resonance with anything that happens. There's no reason to watch this film, unless you're a fan of Aaron Eckhart, as he's the most tolerable part.
<color=D6D9DA>_________________________________________________________________________________
If you are a fan of my reviews, and want to boost my ego receive notifications when new reviews are posted, please join/visit this <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/2-50-Reviews>user group.
For an archive of all my previous movie reviews, please go <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.284075-2-50-Reviews-Archive>here.