20130913: Comedy Review--Spread

Spread

1. Fundamentals
1. American live action feature length film, 97 minutes, 2009, rated R, comedy, romance.
2. IMDB: 5.8/10.0 from 23,608 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 21% on the meter; 31% from 22,848 audience ratings.
4. Directed by: David Mackenzie; screenplay by Jason Dean Hall.
5. Starring: Ashton Kutcher, as Nikki, Anne Heche as Samantha, Margarita Levieva as Heather, Sebastian Stan as Harry.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Nikki sets himself up with Samantha: he gets a place to live, food, and new clothes on his back; she gets his attentions.
2. He has a party while she's in New York on business.  Then he betrays her at the party.  The maid cleans up the party mess afterward.  Seems the ability to think ahead is a bit impaired.
3. Samantha's reaction to her first discovery of Nikki's cheating was unexpected: she got more interested in him as they talked things out.
4. Soon after this he meets Heather at a coffee shop.  She is very different than Samantha, and his interest in her (which arose from her lack of interest in him) eventually contributes to his breakup with Samantha.
5. During the second half of the film, Nikki makes a few lifestyle changes in response to the pain he feels over not possessing Heather.  This all seems unlikely; Heather can do nothing for him, since she is a broke sponger just like he is. 'Jump the shark' comes to mind.
6. So, Nikki learns to bag groceries, do deliveries, and slows down on seductions.  Oh, my.  How long will that last, and why should it be interesting?  The weakness in motivational development is perhaps the film's biggest downfall.


3. Conclusions:
1. One line summary: Ashton Kutcher at his worst plus a miserable screenplay.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores:
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent.


2. Sound: 6/10 Someone with a more authentic voice might have been cast instead of Kutcher.  His narration was repellant: not the content, but the qualities of his voice. I could not believe that he could convince anyone of anything. The music blares from time to time. When considered separately from the film, it was rather good.  Within the film, it was next to irrelevant.


3. Acting: 2/10 Kutcher drags down the entire proceedings.  The only actor in sight was Anne Heche, and her performance, though good, was not enough to carry this awful mess.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Do I care about any of these characters?  Samantha for about the first thirty minutes; after that, no one.  Did I care how the film ended?  No.  If I were not writing this piece I would have stopped after perhaps ten minutes.  Watching the whole 97 minutes showed that that would have been a good choice; the film was grinding and poor from beginning to end.  Perhaps worst of all, this was a comedy during which I did not laugh or smile a single time.