“How did I not know until a week ago about a movie that stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Susan Sarandon, and Dustin Hoffman? Yeah, I don’t get it either. But I immediately went on Best Buy’s website and ordered it.
The reason I heard about it is that it was mentioned in passing in an article in EW about Rebecca Schaeffer. She was an actress who was killed by a stalker in the late 80’s, and her death led to a huge sweep of anti-stalking laws being established. This movie is relevant because it was written by her boyfriend at the time, and it’s very loosely based on the circumstances around her death.
In the movie, a young girl has been senselessly killed. We’re dealing with the aftermath from the funeral onward. Her fiance has been living with her parents, and three of them are coping with the fallout together.
This is some pretty heavy material, obviously. I was already in a funk when I chose to put this DVD on, and by the end I didn’t wanna get up off the couch, ever.
I really loved Susan Sarandon’s character here. Her main strategy for dealing with things was blunt and sarcastic honesty. She’s the one out of them all that I’d love to have around in a crisis.
I kinda get why this movie never really gets talked about. It was interesting and the performances were great, but it really didn’t do a whole lot. I can see how it would have been incredibly therapeutic for writer/director Brad Silberling and likely for others in a similar situation, but for me it just sort of slogged thru. With so much other film out there to watch, it’s not a tragedy if this one gets put away and forgotten.”