Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
Manthast
Absolutely amazing
Jenna Walter
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
batispexa
I expected this film to be awful and it turned out to be decent. This is not the best film I've seen last several months, but I have certainly seen worse. It is a bit more pretentious that it can deliver. But all in all I think it deserves rating between 5 and 7, depending on a taste of a viewer. It is nice to watch and though sometimes it is too predictable and dialog sucks, it still touches you. I wish it was done better, it could've been. i liked grey color. Music was sickly sometimes. acting was good. Who would've thought that pretty boy Ashton could act? I would recommend this movie if you like drama, slow-pace, better-than- mediocre photography and don't have anything to do.
katea-2
Michelle Pfiefer, a wonderful actor, was awful. She didn't react much to anything that happened in the story. Kathy Bates had nothing to do. Taking part was a waste of her time. Ashton Kutcher really doesn't act. The story parts were a jumbled up mess like pieces of puzzles that came from different boxes. Could this movie be fixed? I doubt it. It should never have been made at all. Why are there good screenplays that never get off the shelf and something like gets made, including some good actors. Why did they even consider taking part after reading the first ten pages? The pieces of the story, the camera work, the characters were all in a fog. "Pieces" keep coming up as I write this. The story is filled with pieces that don't fit together. They don't make a good fractured story line either. Nothing could fix such a mess.
Claudio Carvalho
The twenty-four years old wrestler Walter (Ashton Kutcher) leaves the national team in Iowa and returns to his hometown after the brutal murder of his twin sister Annie (Sarah Lind) to support his mother Gloria (Kathy Bates) and his niece. When he goes with his mother to the therapy, he meets the widow Linda (Michelle Pfeifer), whose alcoholic husband was murdered by his friend in a bar. Linda has a deaf and dumb son, Clay (Spencer Hudson), who misses his father and has a repressed anger against the killer, and works in the Southside Community Center organizing weddings for needy people. They befriend each other during the trials and Walter invites Clay to join the local wrestling training. While waiting for the jury verdict of their cases, Linda and Walter have a love affair and Linda falls in love for him. However, their relationship is deeply affected when the verdict of Annie's trial is that the accused is not-guilty. "Personal Effects" is a powerful drama and love story with a good development of the both lead characters. The beauty of Michelle Pfeifer is still astonishing and she does not seem to be fifty-one years old. Her chemistry with Ashton Kutcher is fantastic and I liked very much their performances. Kathy Bates has a minor participation and the unknown Spencer Hudson completes the great cast. Unfortunately, the last scene with Walter with a wounded leg spoils this great drama. It seems to be the typical interference of the producer to give a commercial end to please the average audiences that claim for a happy end. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Por Amor" ("For Love")
rbaron-4
I do not mind taking a chance on a Director I am not familiar with when I see established names such as the luminous Michelle Pfeiffer and wonderful Kathy Bates. Having never seen a single thing Ashton Kutcher has been in, I had no opinion one way or another. After seeing this film it is clear, Mr Kutcher was a painful disappointment. It also seems quite plausible that the director of this film had a crush on him as I recall no less than a dozen close ups of his face and all long shots of Michelle P. You do not take the most beautiful face to grace the screen in the decades between Liz Taylor and Angelina Jolie and skip close-ups!***Potential Spoilers***In addition there is more to prove the director/screenwriter is new at his job. Clumsy attempts at "art house" moves such as, I kid you not, 3 separate eyeball close-ups, awkward hand-held cam, slow motions shots where they make no sense (going out for a cigarette requires slow motion?), scenes that were shot out of sequence (The verdicts of two separate trials come in backwards and at an implausible pace). It is obvious that either attempts were made to move the movie forward quickly or the writer ran out of scene ideas to develop these characters. I mean, what in the heck was the Niece character for, anyway?? Finally, there was no attempt to write about family dynamics before forcing these very different people together. All in all... a big no and further proof Hollywood cannot write for women over 40.The stars I give are for Pfeiffer, Bates and the boy who played Pfeiffers son.
