Review of The Dilemma (2011) by Jenna S — 30 Dec 2011

Man, with some of the acting talent on show here and a director in Ron Howard, I never thought this could be such hard work. Unlikable, mean spirited and down-right depressing, what could have been an insightful drama/ comedy into the difficulties which can breed within a marriage just couldn't decide what it really wanted to be an so inevitably failed to fulfill anything remotely satisfactory.

I came out of it feeling I gained nothing; there were very, very few laughs, the acting was passable at best (and how many more times can Vince Vaughn get away with playing the same character in every movie), while the story was so uneven and convoluted we ended up staring at the clock for the last 45 minutes.

Considering it's only 90 minutes long, that didn't bode well. Wasting talents like Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connelly into bit part cameos felt like a real missed opportunity - instead focusing on a bromance which was neither believable or interesting.

In fact, the whole thing just felt like a missed opportunity, an idea that was thought up and then manipulated to match Vaughn limited abilities, and because of that the whole thing is just a mess which I can't believe would satisfy anyone.