Review of Are You Here (2013) by Amanda C — 20 Dec 2014

Either Matthew Weiner is unable to write real people in a condensed runtime of a feature film or the studios got their hands on the script and morphed it into something unrecognizable. Either way, Are You Here is dull, shallow, pointless and just a little bit offensive.

The actors are all working as hard as they can to salvage the film from complete mediocrity, but when the script is this bad, there is not much to be done. Between being utterly sexist with the shrew sister and the angelic saviour in the form of a woman who's just lost her husband at least 40 years her senior, Owen Wilson's misogynistic entitlement and the message that mental illness can be easily fixed if you just take your meds, there's a little bit here to annoy just about everyone.

The longer the film went, the angrier I got. There is potential in here somewhere, especially with all the talent that has been assembled. Too bad none of it managed to make it onto the screen.