Men, Women & Children (2014)

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

If you like witty comedy or action movie violence look away. But if you like hard hitting drama with brilliant story telling fantastic acting and a serious and relevant plot then Men, Women and Children is perfect. M,W&C is a modern classic that forces the watcher to see the real world impact of sex, high school gossip and the internet. From porn addiction and peer pressure to the video game phenomenon that effects the vast majority of the western world's young adults this film not only shows the struggle of the parents but also an incitefull view at the teenage aspects of life

This film shows the way the Internet changed the relationships people have in real life with others and with themselves. I didn't feel like the Internet was being blamed for those changes, but instead it just gave possibilities that people could take or not. This film is about how insignificant we all are, it makes you put things in perspective and analyze your priorities. Also, you end up having the feeling you don't really know other people even if you live with them.The story centers around a group of teenagers and their parents. I liked the way they took stereotypes of teenagers and showed them in a different light, outside of high school. You have the cheerleaders, the jocks, the loners and they are all complex people instead of just good or bad. I got a "The Breakfast Club" feeling because you see them as people who deal with personal issues and are not as perfect as they might seem. When it comes to the adults, it centers around their romantic relationships and their problems. In all the situations, the Internet functions as an scape from reality, a way to explore new things, being someone different and getting the kind of support they couldn't find in real life. That's why I think the portrayal of the Internet was realistic and not just plain negative. I think this film is a dialogue starter, a great film to be watched by parents and their children. It gets uncomfortable at times but if you talk to each other about your own experiences with the Internet you might end up knowing your family better.

This film tells the story of several men, women and children, who are lost in the modern world that is made easy by the internet, but also succumb to the perils of the internet.I must say I can really relate to this plot, because it's so relevant to our lives. I just have to cast my memories to a few years back, before internet and smartphones dominate people's lives. There was no texting and posting selfies on Facebook! Nowadays, people adjust and maladjust to this new lifestyle. And the film is about that. Though the pacing is slow, it beautifully portrays the disruption and dangers of our behaviours we would otherwise not do without the internet. It exposes our need for attachment, recognition and love. I find the plot very engaging and touching.

The first time I found out about this movie was about a month or two before the actual release date when I saw the trailer on IMDb. I've had 2-3 instances of being completely devoted to a movie just by seeing the trailer, and this was defiantly one of those instances.While usually I prefer to watch the movie before reading the book so that I'll be pleased and not so critical of either media, I couldn't hold out the extra month or two to see the movie and figured that the trailer was so good I might as well read the book. Which the story is very realistic and as I like to put it a "behind the curtains view" of characters and their personal lives. These sort of stories are my favorite, especially when they have a thought provoking somewhat disturbing sub-plot. However, it provides that kind of thought provoking you get from reading a book once and not hundreds of times. So just from the book, the plot was very interesting and while it had a lot of filler moments, of just putting in meaningless moments for emphasis on something later, the fact that you bounce around from these intertwined personalities and families made the story completely. Like I said before, the story focuses on a realistic people but set along with disturbing topics such as anorexia, sex, suicide, pedophilia, etc. So reading the book very much proved to be very dark and sexual and other than the parental characters in the book all the children are still in their last year of junior high which makes these topics more explicitly disturbing. The movie was beautifully directed and very toned down despite still being very sexual and dark. It was pretty close to what you read in the book and centers more around sub-characters that weren't as centered in the book. The movie, like the book, is drawn out too though and you can tell where some parts are just for filling in details and are of little importance.In conclusion of this entire summary, this is a beautiful cult film that a lot of people might enjoy if they read the book as well. In fact I made my friends and some friends of friends read the book and watch the movie like a book club and they agreeably were entranced with the topic and genre. However, if you don't like the book/movie it might be a preference or relatability being that I am a bit younger and related to the themes in the book that the children go through more than the parents.