Yes, I am a fan of Ryan Reynolds. He usually plays a swave and slick young chap who has a heart of gold for everyone he meets. His character's lives are usually lackadaisical but filled with excitement that makes you want that kind of life. To take an old adage, women love him and men want to be him. I am one of those guys. His characters are wrought with what I think cool is. He's not a jerk to anyone and he's got some of the best lines around.I say "usually" because the character he plays in this movie antithesis of the characters he usually plays.
Frank Allen (Ryan Reynolds) plans his life using a series of lists. Everything he ever does is structured and plotted before it's done. His wife (Emily Mortimer) and daughter (Matreya Fedor) are the love of his life, but his wife makes his structured life hard one day by accidentally setting the clock ten minutes back making him late for his ferry. This little moment upsets Frank's life as he knows it. What Frank goes through after this small hiccup in his routine causes him to question not only how he is running his life but also the love he has for his wife, his friends, and even the daughter he's been raising.
Grade - C+
This really isn't the kind of role I usually see Reynolds in, and while I'm not one to say that a person should stick to one type of character, this one seems drastically different than the ones he tends to play. No one is really bad in this movie, but the writing could have been a bit tighter. The message of the story is that sometimes, you've just got to go where life takes you and hold on to your friends and family for support. Yet, coming away from this movie does not make me feel as if I need to reexamine my life to see what changes I could make. Also, the story is kind of slow paced and not told as well as it could have been.
For example, one of Frank's friends, Buddy (Stuart Townsend) is suppose to be there to show Frank what a wonderful life he does have, even though he hasn't planned all the things that has happened to him out. Yet, the character gets tossed back and forth from the jerk to the friend haphazardly that you can miss the point of who he is and what he's trying to do.
Overall, this isn't a bad picture and I'd even sit through it again. However, I'll look forward to Reynold's playing the slick guy with the great lines again.
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