Ella-May O'Brien
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Hattie
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Freeman
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
SnoopyStyle
Izzy Finkelstein/Isabella Patterson (Imogen Poots) recounts her story to reporter Judy (Illeana Douglas). It's four years earlier. Family-man director Arnold Albertson (Owen Wilson) arrives at his Manhattan hotel and calls for an escort. Vickie (Debi Mazar) sends Isabella over to the hotel. He gives her $30k to get out of sex work to pursue her acting dreams. Jane Claremont (Jennifer Aniston) is Izzy's callous therapist. Next, Izzy shows up at an audition for Arnold's play.Peter Bogdanovich seems to be going for the Woody Allen vibe. Imogen Poots is trying for the Jersey girl hooker with a heart of gold. I can't get over the Brit pushing her accent work. Mira Sorvino was much better in this role. Aniston is playing an inappropriate therapist which borders between trying too hard and the only consistent wacky laughs. She's doing a different movie. The cast is top notch. Overall, the laughs don't come often enough but is enough to keep things interesting.
studioAT
As an attempt to make a modern screwball comedy this film is to be applauded, but while it has its moments, and a very strong cast, I can't say I ever found it to be as funny or entertaining as it was intended to be.Owen Wilson does his 'Mr nice guy' act that we've seen many, many times before, and Imogen Poots' accent got on my nerves after a while, as did the constant linking device with her being interviewed.It does boast a performance from Jennifer Aniston that's a bit different from what we're used to, and the always welcome sight of Rhys Ifans, but other than that this was quite standard, unexceptional entertainment.
moonspinner55
Imogen Poots is very good in an exhausting role, that of a starstuck "paid muse" (i.e., call girl) in New York City who manages to land an audition for a new Broadway play--one being directed by the same man who recently requested her services and then paid her $30,000 to find a new profession (he has a soft spot for beautiful prostitutes with ambition, and has been 'tipping' them all over town). Director and co-writer Peter Bogdanovich (who shares the screenplay credit with ex-wife Louise Stratten) is a softie for neurotic, lovestruck characters who come in and out of each other's lives, and his dialogue is, by turns, witty, funny, abrasive and annoying (but never ugly--Bogdanovich is a lot like the Poots character, he believes in charmed lives, meaningful encounters and happy endings). High-strung screwball comedy starts out fun but then begins to grind the viewer down in lopsided valentines. As per usual in a Bogdanovich picture, there are a lot of people to look at and fast patter to pick up on, and the colorful cast happily goes with the flow. Not a comeback for the filmmaker, but not an embarrassment either. ** from ****
recgaspar
Imoge's accent killed me in this movie, it sounded somewhat Polish, somewhat Russian, anything but American. Raised in Brooklyn?? Yeah, right. The movie wants to be an Allen's comedy, but it's not, it's really not, at all. The music and the situations are a clumsy copy of so many other good movies. Even the main actress is a copy of Scarlet Johansson, well, a wannabe anyway. The movie wanted to be funny and quick, and witty and sexy, but it's so predictable, so not funny, and that accent, oh dear, a total killer. Actors are too forced, so not natural. Couldn't they find another actress who could speak normally? Or couldn't she be bothered with the accent? A total waste of time.
