Nonureva Really Surprised!

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Sintz49 My cable blurb for this film listed Juliette Lewis first, then Camille, then described the story in just One sentence. I've enjoyed Lewis a lot in the past, so I viewed the film. But that one sentence blurb was about the right length! I don't want to blame the actors, but the director and writer? Probably. The characters' "character" were mostly hidden: by flashbacks out of context, or by brief sentences or silence in response to direct questions. The dialogue itself may well have been too cryptic to even give the actors insights into their part. Seemed they still had little to show us about their characters in non-verbal ways. When actors don't "get" their character, certainly the director must fill in gaps left by the writer. The feeling I got (& this isn't a verdict, just a description of what scenes "felt like") was that some actors' insights here, maybe weren't heard, or were passed over, by the director. I kept my ears and eyes open for gut level insights, 'cuz the dialogue was empty. When people try to hide something, they may fib but even those untruths can offer viewers some insight into what the character is feeling. Not here, only that they didn't want to talk, or they felt uncomfortable (about good things or bad). Lewis' late scene with Egglesfield's "David" was a bit different, but when everything "Jill" said was nasty, David's verbal response was in disgust, but his behavior wasn't. His character seemed vacuous for not just leaving the cafe - the table seemed empty, and Jill was not "helping". Visually too, like in the cloaked flashbacks, viewers were given little help in several (many?) scenes, like Angie & David sitting inside the trailer, the camera is bouncing around. I'm listening to them talk, and the bouncing is just a distraction. It's almost like the photographer saw too little evidence of the tension in the actor's behavior, or in their words; and so decided to move the camera, at least to supply evidence of some inner struggles in these two friends. If the trailer had at least been in motion, I could have stayed in tune to the dialogue, having seen that the road was bumpy (literally and figuratively). Most of us (the viewers and the makers of the film) know more about the feelings prompted by some situations in this plot, but a better review here, may be implying a reviewer has inserted his/her own experiences into this story; filled it out. I think that viewers can plant more insights into this film, than the film can drop into the viewer.

Claudio Carvalho The Brazilian painter Angie (Camilla Belle) left her mother Glória (Christiane Torloni) and her sister Sônia (Carol Castro) to seek out her father, who left her family when she was a child, in the United States of America. Angie wanders and camps in a tent and works as waitress in diners to raise some money. She befriends the homeless Chuck (Andy Garcia) that protects her while she is camping. When she decides to move to another place, she stops at the roadside to sleep. She is awaken by the highway police officer David (Colin Egglesfield) and she finds that her engine has an expensive problem. David offers a job to Angie with his cousin Jill (Julliete Lewis) and to lodges her in his trailer. Soon they have a love affair but Angie does not want a commitment with David. She leaves him but soon she makes discoveries that will change her feelings."Road Movie" is a road movie with a terrible screenplay since there is no development of the lead character. The viewer does not know who Angie is looking for and how is she tracking this person. However she is an interesting character in the beginning, living in a tent, painting and befriending a homeless that is her best friend. However, when she meets David, their relationship is shallow and poor. But the corny conclusion is ridiculous with the family reunion. My question is, how could Angie be looking for someone that she does not know? Last but not the least, the beautiful Camilla Belle never convinces as Angie. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Angie"

l_rawjalaurence The beginning of OPEN ROAD is highly suggestive, with director Marco Garcia depicting different moments in Angie's (Camilla Belle's) life, as she works as a server, travels along a lonely road, and tries to communicate with her mother back in Brazil. It's clear she's got something to hide, but we have no idea what; all we know is that she is a talented artist, who translates all her emotional pain into her paintings. So far so good; but then the film experiences a failure of nerve and transforms itself into a familiar tale of self-discovery. Angie meets nice boyfriend (Colin Egglesfield), and his skeptical cousin (Juliette Lewis), leaves her boyfriend in the lurch as she goes off on the road, and discovers at the end of the film that her friend Chuck (Andy Garcia) - whom she encountered at her lowest point during her journey - has a dark secret directly relating to her own life. At times the script veers towards the banal, and although the film is well photographed, with several aerial shots of the rolling landscape with Angie's car just a speck on the horizon, one cannot help but feel that director Garcia could have done far more with the material.

Larry Silverstein Although certainly not he worst movie I've ever seen, I felt this indie film was marred by very contrived plot elements and cardboard characters.Camilla Belle stars as the aloof and mysterious young woman Angie, who's working as a waitress in a small town in Arizona, after traveling from her home country of Brazil to search for someone, although we don't know who or why. At nights, she goes into the desert alone, sleeps in a tent, and paints and sketches.To add to the mystery , she won't reveal any of her background to co-workers, and rebuffs any of their attempts at socializing with her. Through flashbacks, there's hints of a possible rape at one time, although these may just be recurrent nightmares.In the desert she befriends a homeless man named Chuck, portrayed by the acclaimed actor Andy Garcia, who sleeps in his broken down truck -- (when she was in school she must have missed the classes in Safety 101 which may have suggested that befriending a homeless man in the middle of the desert at night is not exactly a wise choice). Anyway, Chuck tells Angie that he was once wealthy but "messed up".He tells Angie she's young and should move on with her life and she takes his advice and hits the open road. She ends up sound asleep, in her car, on the side of the road (again-should have attended that Safety class). She's awoken by a highway patrol officer named David, portrayed by Colin Egglesfield who wants to know if she's alright.However, her car has blown a head gasket so he offers to help her get towed to a garage in town, as well as a place to stay at his trailer while the repairs go on. They're attracted to each other, but while David seems like a super nice guy Angie still won't reveal anything about her past or who's she looking for on the road..One of my favorite actresses enters the film at this point Julliete Lewis. She adds life and humor to the movie, in a relatively small role, portraying Jill, who is David's cousin and who runs a diner in town. On his recommendation, she hires Angie as a waitress but warns him not to get too involved with a woman who is so mysterious. David pays little heed though and is ready to introduce her to his mother and perhaps even propose.Unfortunately, at this point the plot contrivances take off culminating in an ending that I thought was totally absurd and incredulous. When I'm saying out loud to the screen No! You're kidding me !--it's usually not a good sign.In summary, although the film has some intrigue and humor, the predominance of the contrivances and non-believable characters I thought heavily outweighed the positives.