Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2012)

Fresh and Exciting

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

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

Oh the inhumanity of being wealthy, young and over privileged while living the easy life in Manhattan. His parents are divorced (though he "works" at his mother's art gallery and has full use of his father's beach front "cottage"). His grandmother dies and leaves him her home and it's contents. To think his parents want him to sell it all for...money! Such heartache. Such drama.The acting is first rate. Cinematography and production values are good. The one problem is the script. When the revolution comes, these people will be the first ones put up against the wall.The characters are unsympathetic. The problems are nonexistent. It's not funny enough to be comedy and not serious enough to be tragedy. All it is, is a group of self-centered rich people stroking themselves. What a waste of 95 minutes.

Before I get to what I think about "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You", I have gotta point out something that really irritates me. In the IMDb summary, it talks about 'James as he works through his life at the therapy sessions'. These are NOT therapy sessions and as a trained psychotherapist, it irritates me when untrained folks do what they call 'therapy'. A life coach is NOT a therapist. Now I am not against life coaches--if you want one, fine. But in this movie a seriously depressed and suicidal young man goes to a life coach instead of seeking appropriate mental health treatment--and the life coach was WAY over her head and very unprofessional for ignoring this. Badly written and a bit irresponsible if you ask me.As for the movie itself, this film reminds me of a couple other Marcia Gay Harden films I've seen lately--wonderfully acted yet with a script that seems incomplete or at least in need of a re-write. Now this does NOT mean I didn't like the film--it was worth it overall--even with its flaws (such as an ill-defined plot and an ending that seemed ridiculously simplistic). The acting and characters were that good. In particular, Toby Regbo (who is credited very low in the cast even though he's CLEARLY the lead) did a great job with the part he was given. Interesting and involving but the parts don't exactly work together to form a pleasing whole. See the film and see what you think.

This movie kind of reminds me of The Art of Getting By, but the main character was not as likable or accessible. Most of the time, I though he was annoying and affected. Many of the scenes rang false and the accompanying dialogue seemed to be written by a first-year psychologist student. However, the saving grace is the second-half of the film. Once the life-coach aspect comes into play, the movie improves dramatically. The main character's scenes with Lucy Lu felt real and not like the psycho-analysis that permeated the first-half of the movie. I really enjoyed the scenes in Washington and they really captured the claustrophobic feeling of the main character. Finally seeing what happened made the main character more sympathetic and less insufferable. Decent film

Someday this pain will be useful to you – Trash It (D) Well this is as bad as its name, a rich teenager finding meaning for his life and hating what he has is ridiculous. Even in the end we don't see finding him any meaning of his life which makes it even more badly. The director somehow manages to nab brilliant ensemble but even their performances couldn't save this lousy script. Toby Regbo was amazing in "Mr.Nobody" so I was really excited to see this but here he is just another Looney wandering in the streets of New York. Deborah Ann Woll is amazing beautiful as always. Marcia Gay Harden, Lucy Liu and Stephen long etc are good in their parts. On the whole, its waste of money and time, better to watch Toby Regbo is Mr.Nobody and Deborah Ann Woll again in True Blood.