The rest of the cast is phenomenal. Pierce Brosnan plays Charles Hawkins, Tyler's distant business minded father. The always classy Lena Olin plays Diane Hirsch, Tyler's remarried and loving mother. Emilie de Ravin plays Alysa "Allie" Craig a college student aspiring to be a social worker specializing in criminal justice. Chris Cooper plays Sgt. Neil Craig, Alysa's overbearing father and investigator for the NYPD. Finally we have relative newcomer Ruby Jerins who plays Caroline Hawkins, Tyler's adorable little sister. Ruby was divine in this film and I hope to see her get more traction as an actress from this role.
The film follows the Hawkins family and the Craig family through a summer in New York, focusing primarily on Tyler and Allie. The movie starts on a NY subway platform where an 11 year old Allie is waiting for a train with her mother. As the train approaches two young men pull guns and take the mother's purse. They get on the train to leave but when the doors open one last time the shoot the mother and leave with the departing train. We first meet the Hawkins family at a graveside. We find out later that it is Tyler's older brother who died on his 22nd birthday.
The complexities of grieving family are something that could be endlessly studied. No two people grieve in the same way. When you get together more people all grieving the same thing but in different ways, things can get very tense. Some people try to hide from their grief, some embrace it and move on, some languish in their grief never willing to heal. Tyler and Allie find each other through interesting circumstances, but what I think bonds them is that they have both suffered great losses.
The film goes through the typical romantic comedy style interactions for Allie and Tyler. They meet cute, go on a clever first date with an activity aside from dinner. They flirt, the make out and they fight and break up. All of this you should expect. This movie is good for the parts of the film outside of this relationship. True, there are two incredibly hot make out sessions that are fast forward-to-the-good-part worthy. The films true charms, however, are in the little things outside of the main romance. Ruby Jerins portrays the artsy little sister with true panache. She makes you wish this little girl were real so that you could be her friend and mentor. If you watch this movie and don't want to crawl into the screen and give this little girl a hug and ask her about her drawings you must really dislike children.
Film watchers be warned, this movie requires a pack of tissues, it is not the stuff of summer romance that you might expect. Tyler's legal troubles that develop through the movie lead him to a fate that none could have predicted as Allie's father's world is turned upside down. The end of the movie is beautiful in the pain that in inflicts, you never see it coming, just like the real event.
The complexities of grieving family are something that could be endlessly studied. No two people grieve in the same way. When you get together more people all grieving the same thing but in different ways, things can get very tense. Some people try to hide from their grief, some embrace it and move on, some languish in their grief never willing to heal. Tyler and Allie find each other through interesting circumstances, but what I think bonds them is that they have both suffered great losses.
The film goes through the typical romantic comedy style interactions for Allie and Tyler. They meet cute, go on a clever first date with an activity aside from dinner. They flirt, the make out and they fight and break up. All of this you should expect. This movie is good for the parts of the film outside of this relationship. True, there are two incredibly hot make out sessions that are fast forward-to-the-good-part worthy. The films true charms, however, are in the little things outside of the main romance. Ruby Jerins portrays the artsy little sister with true panache. She makes you wish this little girl were real so that you could be her friend and mentor. If you watch this movie and don't want to crawl into the screen and give this little girl a hug and ask her about her drawings you must really dislike children.
Film watchers be warned, this movie requires a pack of tissues, it is not the stuff of summer romance that you might expect. Tyler's legal troubles that develop through the movie lead him to a fate that none could have predicted as Allie's father's world is turned upside down. The end of the movie is beautiful in the pain that in inflicts, you never see it coming, just like the real event.
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