Review of Personal Effects (2009) by Esraa A — 19 Jun 2010

It has been awhile since a movie bummed me out as much as this did. Dare I say, I was kind of looking forward to this one. Yeah, Ashton Kutcher is no great actor, but he plays a certain type of character well, and quite a few of his have made it to my "guilty pleasure" list (Butterfly Effect, Just Married, What happens in vegas. Not to mention being a fan of That 70's Show).

This one however, while not technically a bad movie, was just depressing. Ashton acts will all the conviction of a chunk of wood here and the whole thing just falls flat. Even Michelle Pfeiffer, normally a good actress, is unmoving. While I had pity for both their characters, and understood that a film about dealing with death was never going to be a laugh fest, I just never expected it to be quite this bleak.

I can't even say why it bummed me out that much. Sure it was bad, but it wasn't that bad, and I've seen films where way worse things happened yet still walked away uplifted or at least moved in some way.