Alex of Venice (2015)

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Simple, human-centred writing, honest depictions of the average Janes and Joes, and a Don Johnson coming out of nowhere to tug at my heart strings.A story into which I could easily place myself, not because of any personal drama of the kind, but simply on account of the next-door familiarity of the characters and their most usual, run- of-the-mill predicaments.This, without once finding it lacking in pace or boring; a true feat given my short attention span and my intolerance to wasting time. All in all, thank you for this unexpected little gem, Mr. Messina.

From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/ Mary Elizabeth Winstead has emerged as one of my favorite actress's. Ever. She positively shines as "Alex of Venice" with yet another in a continuing string of organically enchanting performances.This time she gives us Alex, a young environmental protection attorney whose workaholic overachieving has relegated her own family to virtual peripheral status. Alex's poignant reexamination of her priorities are at once engaging and heartbreaking as exquisitely brought to bear by the wondrous Winstead.Chris Messina pulls double duty here. As Director, he shows a keen gift for extracting the essential nature from each of the film's fine cast. This includes Messina himself, as he delivers a moving turn in the role of George, a neglected husband who has ignored life's personal callings for far too many years.Don Johnson is also simply superb and genuinely affecting as Alex's rough around the edges dad, Roger. Johnson's rendering of a washed up TV series actor playing a supporting part in what amounts to a community theater production parallels his character's succumbing to an insidious disease that threatens to rob him of his mental faculties.Derek Luke makes an impression as a smoothly shrewd real estate developer who comes to reveal a soul more than capable of conveying compassion. And kudos to the great Jennifer Jason Leigh. While her presence is small, her big name is absent from the screen during "Alex"'s opening credits.How often do we see THAT kind of modesty in Hollywood? For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/

While I don't mind the acting at all and I think everyone did a great job I think the script is just too...fairy tale as someone said in their review. We have an smart but rather incompetent woman going through hard times when the husband leaves (takes a break) because he's being treated like crap. Although not divorce she goes on to sleep with others while still pathetically doing bad at everything else. She's suppose to be a workaholic but the movie doesn't really show this. She's even hitting on her client, that's desperation and rightfully so.All in all, this movie is a one time watch and forget. I wouldn't expect too much from it. Characters are not very well defined at all. The sister's character is all over the place.

The attempt to portray Alex (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as a woman in flux, forced by circumstance to "reinvent herself", was lost on this viewer. Instead, little was done to drag her out of the mire of self absorption. She takes everyone around her for granted, and is clueless about what is going on with the people with whom she shares a household, most importantly her son Dakota (Skylar Gaertner) . It was very difficult if not impossible to find any empathy for Alex especially when her husband George (Chris Messina) manages, at a distance, to know more about what's going on with their child than she does. Alex's sister Anya (Julianna Guill) is invited by patriarch Roger (Don Johnson) during George's absence for reasons never revealed, and thankfully so, as Dakota would be a footnote barely visible to the story line, (let alone his mother), without Anya's playful interactions and wise counsel. Rather than building a powerful thesis on family dynamics the film focuses on superficial distractions like getting laid or barhopping as solutions to the very real angst that accompanies dramatic life change. We don't ever know why Alex's work is so important to her, or why she cannot relate in the most basic way to her son, or how she feels about her husband, or why she thinks it's okay to expect that everyone else is responsible for managing the day-to-day tasks of raising a child and managing a career. Supporting cast do a wonderful job of carrying an otherwise lackluster character study to a predictable end. Unfortunately for Winstead, she is faced with trying to unearth profundity from the shallow grave where Alex's character is buried.