Unfinished Business

First Hit:  Funny, long winded at times, and a convoluted story that didn’t quite work.

Story starts with Dan (Vince Vaughn) leaving the company he works for because the person he works for, Chuck (Sienna Miller), is reducing his commission again. He storms out of the building and meets Timothy (Tom Wilkinson) who has been let go because of his age and Mike Pancake (Dave Franco) who is a challenged employee.

They agree to form a company together and go into direct competition against their old company. They believe they've scored a great contract but have to go to Germany to close the deal. When they get there they find out they are a fluffer (a company that is part of the bidding process to make a competitor, his old boss, look good).

However they decide they can win the contract and work to close the deal. What I thought was the funniest situation in this film was Dan having to stay in a museum as part of an art installation. His bed, everything, was able to be viewed through glass by the museum attendees. The name of the artwork he was installed in was American Businessman #42. Another funny scene was the steam bath scene.

There are also some very touching scenes of him and his son and daughter as they talk through life situations.

Vaughn was typical Vaughn and he’s really not a character in a movie but more of himself in a particular role. Fast-talking, occasionally intelligent, and mostly a wise ass. Miller has a minor role and was OK. Wilkinson was really pretty good in his role as the old codger who’s trying to get a little more out of his life before he dies. Franco was funny and carried off the naivety required with aplomb. Steve Conrad wrote an amusing script. Ken Scott’s direction was adequate.

Overall:  There were some funny bits, but overall it was a let-down.

One Day

First Hit: Disappointing overall as the chemistry wasn’t there between the leads and I couldn’t care about Dexter.

This film spans 20 years of time and neither character showed much aging.

Briefly, Emma (played by Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (played by Jim Sturgess) are college mates. The audience sees that Emma likes Dexter but is cautiously afraid of him because she doesn’t feel worthy of his good looks and charm. He is supposedly attracted to her but shouldn't be because she isn't hot enough (that's the feeling I got).

They spend the night together but without sex and the audience is to believe that there is something magical growing between them. They go their separate ways and they keep in touch phone calls and occasional dates. The passage of time is noted by the anniversary of their meeting (July 15th) continues to pop-up on the screen.

Dexter uses his charm and looks to snag a job as a TV host who is supposed to be hip. He spends all his time drinking, snorting coke, and screwing women he doesn’t care about. It isn’t that people cannot redeem themselves, but there must be something that touches the audience where redemption springs up from within the audience want him to redeem himself.

There really isn't anything. Only when he is with his daughter at the end of the film did I even begin to like the guy (and maybe that was the point – but it was too little too late). Meanwhile Emma, wanting to be a writer (poems and a novel) works in a Mexican restaurant in England (where they are both located). Ian (played by Rafe Spall) also works at the restaurant and thinks himself as a comedian. So together they are too lost souls not doing what they believe in but working together in this Mexican restaurant.

Because he is stable, and they are having this pitiful life together, he and Emma decide to move in together. This made no sense as Emma's character just wasn't that dumb to do this and yet the story has her doing this. But she’s supposed to have chemistry with Dexter (her life’s love) and there is none here as well.

As time goes by and both Dexter and Emma find their path back to each other, no matter the dialogue, scripting or scenes, there’s nothing really there between them to make me believe that is a “love of my life” relationship.

For comparison, look at Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in “The Adjustment Bureau” for an example of on-screen chemistry.

Hathaway would have done much better with someone with whom she could create chemistry with along with a director who knew how to get something interesting from his actors. I think her acting here is solid enough, but everything around her is sub-standard. Sturgess has the look of a “player” but there was emptiness about him which made his character two dimensional and not worth caring about. Spall played either did a horrible job at his clueless character or the script was equally clueless. Either way, each time he was on the screen I cringed, he resembled no one I’ve ever run into. Ken Scott (as Dexter’s father) and Patricia Clarkson as the mother were solid in their roles. David Nicholls wrote the screenplay from his book which could have been good. While the direction by Lone Scherfig never captured real characters fully and let the story flail away at drama and romance.

Overall: This film is forgettable and had little to offer in the realm of romance.