I watched this last night. This is one that will probably never appeal to a broad audience, because it's not mindless. It's very low key, and the main character is a very depressed and cynical person, and the comedy is fairly dark. But I liked it a lot. Actually Charlize's character was a little too close to the bone for me for comfort. Perhaps I liked it because I empathized with her character's situation a lot.
She's one of those who wanted to just get out of her small suburban town and go to the city (Minneapolis in this case) and have bigger dreams. But she's ended up isolated, cynical, alcoholic, depressed, single, and in her late 30s. She's doing the 'immediately regretted emotional pit stop' type dating thing. But, upon getting the info that her old high school beau has had a baby, she has the standard 'back in the glory days' nastalgia attack that hits many people once they realize youth and optimism have leaked away somehow while they weren't looking. She decides to go get him back, and isn't too worried about the damage done in the process.
She was the super-popular, voted 'best hair', prom queen type, but one of the most interesting parts of the flick is when she runs into one of the biggest losers from high school, and they discover that the've kind of ended up in the same place, just through very different routes, her's was just a little more indirect.
One reason it won't appeal to a wide audience is that it doesn't have the super-satisfying ending. She doesn't get the beau, the loser she hooks up with doesn't turn into the nice guy and they live happily ever after. That pretty much I guess is the kiss of death for broad popularity. But a lot more realistic.
It was written by Diablo Cody, who wrote the script for Juno. I can't help but imagine that some of the content in this one is drawn from real life. And it's really well done, so obviously Juno wasn't a one hit wonder deal. I also can't help but think that Charlize is a bit in touch with this character as well, because she seems to inhabit the role very well. Maybe it's just really good acting, I dunno.
Don't watch it to see Charlize nekkid because it's not that type of movie. The one semi-nude scene is more sad than sexy.
