Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Life Inside Out Has To Overcome Some Very Tough Obstacles

Life Inside Out is a strange movie. It has a lesser known cast (which is cool and kind of a relief), but also seems to coexist  and mingle with two near fatal flaws: poor editing and over-obvious storytelling. Yet somehow it surpasses these obstacles and survives... prevails as a pretty swell movie.
It's the very down to earth story of a mother still raising her three sons under some very trying circumstances. Her husband makes all the money in the house (which isn't all that much) and her youngest son is depressed and completely introverted. One day, as she just can't seem to get rid of her guitar, she decides she may as well pick it up and start playing again. Music, it seems, can open up a new path for her and her family.
Maggie Baird and Finneas O'Connell do their jobs serviceably well and manage to keep the picture afloat to the best of their abilities. But the weirdest fact here is, Jill D'Agnenica (the director) is an editor by trade. She also edited this movie, which (as I stated earlier) was a serious negative for the film. This leads me to wonder if, given this films schedule and budget, she was not able to get the full amount of coverage she would have liked. But this is just conjecture... it just confuses me that D'Agnenica could allow her usual namesake to go by the wayside when she finally got around to directing a film.
Oh well. As I stated above, this movie still manages to be good enough in spite of some inherent weaknesses. And the attempt is worth commending in its own right.

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