Stuck in Love (2005)

Elevator Pitch: A successful writer has been divorced from his wife for two years, but is still obsesssed with her. He has a daughter and a son both of whom aspire to be authors, and indeed the daughter has written a book which he has edited, so she has written another. She is a bit of a slapper preferring one night stands to emotional commitment. His son fancies a girl who has drug related problems, and  they have sex but she ends up in rehab soon after. So Bill, the author, spends his time doing nothing much and has sex with a neighbour who calls in frequently, including him in her jogging routine.

Content: This film contains some non-revelatory sex, and one of the girls appears in her bra once; as a result it got an R rating in America, but a 12 in Spain. There is also some drug taking (apparently). The characters spend a lot of time talking, within the family and with those around them. One of the minor character’s mum dies. Bill sneaks about outside his former wife’s house and spies on her. Time is spent on the beach, and while there is never anyone else there, the sand shows signs of much recent trampling.

A View: The critics were divided about this outing and the general public did not dislike it once available free but it made less than a million dollars at the box office. What on earth were the people who commissioned this turkey thinking? I have seldom come across such – I was going to say – tosh, but that would be elevating it to a higher standard than it deserves. When Steven King rang the teenage son to say how much he liked the story the boy had written I almost vomited. So an “Almost Don’t See” because it is not unpleasant, it is just pointless.

Additional Info: While Kristen Bell gets an “AND” and figures big time in the trailer, if her character had been left on the cutting room floor it would have made no difference to the plot.