EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

2freensel I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

moonspinner55 There's a cute visual introduction to Drew Barrymore's pregnant character in "Home Fries": shot from above, while walking to work, Barrymore's enlarged tummy leads the way. Unfortunately, "Fries" is an obtuse black comedy, which mistakes ridiculous behavior for the sublime. Drew's an unmarried fast-food waitress who is clumsily romanced by the stepson of the married man who got her in trouble. Subplot about the married schnook having been "scared to death" by his stepson and brother due to an elaborate prank contains practically no interest whatsoever, while Barrymore's character is kept unceremoniously behind the counter. It's a disastrous picture, full of inept writing and unsure directing, wasting the talents of its leading lady and some smart supporting players. As the love-interest, Luke Wilson registers zero; he's a constipated Prince Charming. NO STARS from ****

ccthemovieman-1 Drew Barrymore is cute and she has her loyal fans but, man, this woman makes so many lame movies. To her credit, some of her movies, like "Ever After," are nice films - no language problems and a film the family could safely watch which certainly is opposite of her wild, earlier days when she was exposing herself on the David Letterman show, and other incidents. Barrymore has since played a few more of those nice characters, so I am not knocking her. It's just that so many of her films are "Lifetime" cable TV Grade B chick flicks. This one, however - be warned - is a much darker film than advertised. It's not exactly the sweet romance story you might think.What hurt this movie, in my opinion, wasn't Barrymore so much as it was Luke Wilson. Is there a dumber looking face in Hollywood than his? I'm sorry but with that dumb expression I cannot buy him as an "intelligent" person as he is supposed to be in this story. Of course, the filmmakers deliberately had him making these goofy faces, which is confusing if he is supposed to come across as someone with brains. He doesn't look it, nor does the script make this an intelligent film, either. It's supposed to be a comedy but you tell me how many laughs you got watching the first 45 minutes in here? I didn't get many, if any, and by then had lost interest. Hopefully, Drew will have better luck finding more intelligent scripts in the future, or at least stories with a plot to them!

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews I don't know what exactly went wrong with this film; I guess they wanted to make a comedy, and they couldn't figure out whether to make it a romantic comedy or a black comedy. It could perhaps have been both, but that would require for it to start out as both. It starts out only as a black comedy, and the romance just surfaces from out of nowhere about half an hour into the film. Romance can add to a film, but with some black comedies(including this one) the plot is too far-fetched for you to really care about the characters, and romance in a movie is empty if you have no one to care for. What's left is just some unoriginal black comedy gags that seem worn out; people who should care about the dead guy but don't, the guy talking sense being mistaken as the crazy one, the ceremony that should be silent and holy, but is constantly interrupted... I could go on. We've seen it all before, often done better than here. The plot, while being extremely far-fetched, is fairly original(as far as I know) and it does allow for at least a few funny scenes. Too many of them just seem recycled. The acting is not bad, in fact it's better than what the script is worth. The script is fairly badly written, especially with the randomly thrown-in romance. Many of the characters seem like stereotypical cliches too. All in all, the film could have been far better, had the plot been more believable, the romance better worked in, the script better written, the material more original and the film overall less predictable. It has its moments, but it fails to entertain throughout the runtime, which it should be able to, as it's only 90 minutes. It does have a few pretty good laughs though. It's just barely entertaining enough to sit through, and it's not the worst way to spend an hour and a half, if you've got absolutely nothing better to do. 5/10

ArizWldcat This was a black comedy that unfolded over the first 30 minutes of the film, revealing one surprise relationship after another, until you realize that all the major characters are related in surprising ways. My daughter and I watched this together and laughed out loud quite a bit. Luke Wilson did a great job as the moony eyed helicopter pilot who falls for Drew's character. Drew did a good job as a confused but sweet pregnant girl who works at a burger joint in somewhere in small town America. Jake Busey looks a whole lot like his dad, and chewed a lot of furniture for this role, which was rather one dimensional. Catherine O'Hara is at her best playing this quirky mom. (during one funny scene, the older boy asks her if it's true that she liked the other son better..."I love you both, she says, but the difference is only this (puts her fingers an inch apart) much!LOL!!!) If you don't enjoy dark humor, this will not amuse you. It also had an ending that made us go "awww"...it was almost as if they weren't sure how to end this one, though. Overall, it wasn't a bad film.