Open iTunes to preview, buy, and download this movie.
Plot Summary
When celebrated New York playwright Harold Blumenthal dies while laughing at his own joke, his estranged and dysfunctional family members are forced to come to terms with the years of individual and familial issues now publicly – and rather permanently – catalogued within his life's work.
Credits
Director
Screenwriter
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
50%- Reviews Counted: 8
- Fresh: 4
- Rotten: 4
- Average Rating: 5.0/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: Sharp yet overdetermined, "Blumenthal" doesn't breathe naturally - it's a comedy in a box. Just not a box that everyone will want to open.
Rotten: A limp facsimile of a Woody Allen ensembler set in a familiar world of New York Jewish intellectuals - minus only the wit, and the intellect.
Rotten: Fisher's filmmaking, aside from a couple scenes ... that are nicely composed in long-take two-shots, is too consistently flat to make the material spark.
Fresh: Not all of Fisher's debut feature works, but when it does the results are lacerating, hilarious, and surprisingly forgiving.
Customer Reviews
Solid movie
It has that Woody Allen feel without having to watch Woody Allen. Awesome cast, beautiful photography, great story.
Fresh, witty and engaging
Loved this film! Would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a Woody Allen fan. The writing and acting is superb - lots of hilarious dialogue that left me laughing out loud, yet balanced by poignant, relatable real-life moments. Five stars.
loved it.
I like any movie that stays consistent to the tone and world that it sets up. the story lines danced in and out of each other well. My favorite parts were the long two shots that the director let play out in front of us. There is usually so much fast cutting that the sense of the piece gets muddled and feels generic these days. not here. I was into it. and because the subject, or one of them, is Brian Cox's character, a playwright, it felt fitting that the world of the movie moved at the pace of a play. lots of fast dialogue and smart characters talking about big ideas. It felt like the subject and style played well together. Very rarely do I think, 'I could watch that again,' after viewing a comedy. I could totally watch this again. super fun.
Viewers Also Bought
- Breakfast with Curtis
- Laura Colella
- View In iTunes
- Age of Summerhood
- Jacob Medjuck
- View In iTunes
- The Puffy Chair
- Jay Duplass
- View In iTunes
- Jake Squared
- Howard Goldberg
- View In iTunes
- Crimes of the Heart
- Bruce Beresford
- View In iTunes