The Oranges (2011)

Ridiculous, bland and terrible. There was no weight to any of the relationships. When the young girl tells her uncle that there are "no rules", she reveals the ENTIRE motivation of both characters.

There are no rules! So lets go to Atlantic City! And hey, if your partner of over twenty years walks out on you because you're sleeping with the child of her (and your!) best friends, well that's just a thing that happens!

The scenes between Laurie and Meester are quite bland, though they get more nauseating as their systematic destruction of their family relationships continue.

It just makes no sense.

Fmovies: I wouldn't call the cast "star studded" but they have all been in enough good movies that I figured this one would be a hit. It was not. It's too depressing to be funny and too funny to be interpreted as realistic. The characters all lack depth which makes them seem reactionary and narcissistic. The chemistry between the Laurie and Meester is awkward at best and completely non-captivating. The humor at times is played out which includes many of the "shockingly crass" barbs that the characters throw at one another. Of course there is a giggle here and there and a clever scene or two but not enough to make it worth watching. Maybe there was too much faith put in the cast to carry the film or too much movie left on the cutting room floor but whatever the problem is this movie doesn't have IT.

The Oranges gives the viewer a light hearted look at what is traditionally considered very taboo. A middle aged man whose daughter still lives at home falls in love with his best friends daughter, who happens to be the same age as his daughter. Factor in that he is still married, and she as of last week was engaged, and all the makings of a dark depressing midlife crisis come to a head in tragic and heartbreaking ways in what could only be an indie drama... Except that it isn't a drama, it is a lighthearted family comedy.

Such taboo subjects, under a different light with different music, could easily have found itself in contention for being quite the drama, but alas, the whole film is flipped upside down with a plot that feels so unauthentic and ridiculous that I often had to stop myself and say "no way his friend would be feeling okay with this." It felt like these families were alien, living in a different soda-pop world than the one I have seen of the suburbs. If this didn't make me cringe enough, the music would pop in and make me feel like for some reason I'm supposed to be okay with throwing your wife away for a newer model.

However, oddly enough, at the end of the day the complete and total disregard for all things righteous actually won me over. I won't by any means label this as anything worthwhile to filmmaking, which it wasn't, but the absurdness of all of this (especially the music) piling up somehow worked, and the film mainly works because the acting really makes the ridiculous believable. Catherine Keener gives an awesome performance, as well as Oliver Platt, who sells the most unrealistic character ever devised like he is more real than Shakespeare (yes Shakespeare is real.)

This film at several moments felt like by all means it should fail miserably, but thanks to the talent involved, it manages to be saved. One can tell that the screenplay just wasn't very good, but at the end of the day, somehow this film works. It is far from a great film, by any means, but it works. 7 out of 10.

The Oranges fmovies. The friendship between two middle-aged neighboring couples is severely strained during the Christmas holidays when the patriarch of one family has an affair with the post-teenage daughter of his friends. Poorly-written suburban shenanigans from Ian Helfer and Jay Reiss, whose script tries for a wry tone but does not have enough substance to carry interest passed the halfway mark. Their scenario, mostly made up from memories of other films such as "American Beauty" and "Say Anything", is unconvincing in the extreme, hobbled further by poorly-cast kid actors who look nothing like their on-screen parents. Obnoxious and foul-mouthed throughout...and yet scored with nostalgic seasonal music and over-decorated with twinkling lights and snowmen. * from ****

This movie is one of the best examples of,"If it's not on the page... it's not on the stage."

Kudos to the casting director to be able to collect such a strong cast. The script is weak, at best, and it is no less than miraculous it was sufficient to get "yeses". Either a large number of favors were pulled in, or perhaps a truly brilliant strategy of leveraging the first to get the second and third etc.

However, despite the skills and experience of the cast (at least the elder statesman) watching the film is an endless series of cringing, from one awkward and unfunny sentence to the next.

I consider the film unwatchable, but gave it 3 out of 10 because it has value as a teaching film because the script is so many levels beneath the cast.

I saw The Oranges last night and I must say I expected so much more that what I saw. The movie panders to one of men's ultimate fantasies; that being that cheating is okay if everything, in bizarro world, works out in the end. I will say that the acting was very good but I think that the performances are wasted on a screenplay that is too contrived. This story has been done to death and it has been done better. I did enjoy the soundtrack. I thought there were numerous continuity issues that should have been picked up prior to this showing. Does no one in Hollywood know what New Jersey would look like in late November and December? Trust me – there would be no leaves on the trees or emerald green lawns. There were some very funny scenes but I wasted two hours of my life that I will never get back. I have visions of seeing this movie be released in time for Christmas based on Hollywood's warped view as to what most people go through during the holidays.