20131220: Drama Review--A Perfect Ending

A Perfect Ending

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 110 minutes, drama.
2. IMDB: 5.4/10.0 from 1,093 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 175,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No Reviews Yet...' and 54% liked it from 146 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.1/5.0 from 124,176 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Nicole Conn.
6. Starring: Barbara Niven as Rebecca Westridge, Jessica Clark as Paris, John Heard as Mason Westridge , Morgan Fairchild as Valentina.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Rebecca is in a marriage where she has never had a climax, and she and her husband Mason have sex twice a year, whether they want to or not.  Mason is a bit of a shifty dealer, and he signs over certain company segments to Rebecca to avoid litigation and perhaps criminal charges.  He's very controlling with her and keeps her in the dark as much as possible.


2. Theme 1: Rebecca's lesbian friends try to get her to enjoy herself more with another woman, perhaps through Valentina, who runs a service for that.  This starts slowly with Paris, since Rebecca is skittish about it, but picks up speed later.


3. Theme 2: Rebecca decides to use Mason's overconfidence to take control of most of his companies.  The documents he urged her to sign earlier are a great help in this.  Further into the film, we find out that Rebecca has terminal cancer.  She will have a lot of decisions to make.


4. Theme 3.: Rebecca's first lesbian lover, Paris, is going through emotional turmoil herself over the loss of a loved one.  Some time ago, she had a minor laughing spat with her husband.  She playfully pushed him away, into the path of a car that killed him.


5. Theme 4: Rebecca's daughter from a first marriage feels left out, plus Mason abused her sexually a few years back.  One Mason and Rebecca's two sons is to be married into even more money, but his prospective wife is a bit of an odd duck.


6. Will Rebecca and Mason handle the full transfer of power before she is gone?  Will Rebecca figure out her sexual identity?  Will Paris get over the exact way that her husband died?  Will the next generation get their acts together?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Soap opera, rated R; nicely done for the budget.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 There were too many closeups of mundane objects coupled with rack focus.  The shots of Paris emoting were atmospheric, but more often boring than not. The regular footage was very well done.


2. Sound: 8/10 Mostly OK, but dips too low sometimes.


3. Acting: 5/10 Lots of variation: John Heard was quite convincing; Barbara Niven almost convincing; the actors who play the grown up children were rather bad, as were the actors who played the lesbian friends.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 The story lines made sense eventually, but the whole thing was rather ponderous.  Oh, well, soap opera traditions.