Review of Cottage Country (2013) by Jesse O — 02 Mar 2014

This is a dark comedy without the comedy. It's got a good idea and a good cast, but I think the film has some pretty severe tonal and consistency issues. There's some moments of lunacy and seeing how this relationship, more particularly Cammie, completely manipulates Todd into doing everything she wants to make sure that the crimes that were committed aren't traced to them.

She's doing this for completely selfish reasons, as she's already 34, she doesn't want to wait, at the very least, 5 years before she's able to meet someone else, fall in love with him, marry him and have kids.

That was pretty cool, but the film just isn't that funny. The funniest scene in the film is the one where they're burying Dov Rosenberg and Todd refuses to fuck up his afterlife by cutting his body up instead of burying him in the ground as Jew tradition dictates.

That was easily the best part of the film, at least as comedy goes. Malin Akerman's performance as this manipulative girlfriend who, literally, tells Todd when and how to propose, was easily the best part of the movie.

I like Tyler Labine and he's got a very likable presence, but Malin steals the show. Of course, what's stealing the show when the final edit is an absolute mess with very obvious identity issues.

The film isn't terrible, as it does have a good cast, but the script falls short of the lead cast's talents. This isn't a particularly good movie to follow Gravity with, I'll say that right now.