Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have confirmed to be one in every of Hollywood’s most enduring {couples} ever, having almost 40 years of marriage beneath their belt and elevating two youngsters, together with Smile breakout star Sosie Bacon. Apparently, the pair have solely labored collectively on display a handful of occasions, starting once they first met one another on PBS’ Lemon Sky adaptation and having left off with 2004’s twin releases of The Woodsman and Cavedweller.
Now, over 20 years later, Bacon and Sedgwick have lastly teamed again up on display for The Greatest You Can, and it is not fairly clear if the wait was price it. The romantic dramedy, produced by the pair, does its finest to supply a novel method to the previous formulation with its Third Age lead characters and affords them some very candy moments, however this does not completely assist it overcome feeling a bit scattershot in its plot.
Charming Characters & Arcs Are Downed In A Tonally Inconsistent Plot
Hailing from author/director Michael J. Weithorn, finest often known as creator of the hit sitcom The King of Queens, Sedgwick co-leads the Greatest You Can solid as Cynthia Rand, a profitable urologist dwelling in New York. Her pretty quiet life married to Judd Hirsch’s Warren, a former investigator into Nixon’s Watergate scandal who’s 30 years her senior, turns into sophisticated when he enters a interval of cognitive decline, inflicting her to query the wedding completely.
Issues grow to be extra sophisticated when their home is damaged into, and she or he meets Bacon’s Stan Olszewski, a retired police officer now working as a non-public safety contractor with whom she begins growing a bond with via some deeply private textual content conversations. All of the whereas, Stan is coping with emotions of insecurity of failing to dwell as much as his prior profession potential, in addition to making an attempt to enhance his relationship along with his daughter, who he’s pushing to beat her personal insecurities to grow to be a profitable musician.
Marking Weithorn’s first time behind the filmmaking digicam since 2010’s A Little Assist, the script has numerous transferring components that always discover themselves feeling disparate from the core engine of The Greatest You Can‘s story. In his try to stability the budding romance between Cynthia and Stan, the previous’s struggles to offer her husband with efficient help and the latter’s larger aspirations for his daughter, the author/director makes an attempt to current quite a lot of tones.
Nevertheless, when the film shifts away from specializing in them as a pair, The Greatest You Can actually finds itself feeling too inconsistent.
Cynthia and Stan’s life-reflecting conversations, informed with a mix of voiceover narration from Sedgwick and Bacon and on-screen textual content bubbles throughout their day-to-day lives, make efficient use of the real-life couple’s pure chemistry to ship some humorous beats. It additionally does a good sufficient job to hurry via a few of the pair’s backstories to assist viewers perceive the selections they’re going to make throughout the film’s 103-minute runtime.
Nevertheless, when the film shifts away from specializing in them as a pair, The Greatest You Can actually finds itself feeling too inconsistent. Stan’s interactions along with his daughter, performed by It is What’s Inside‘s Brittany O’Grady, nearly all the time veer into battle between the pair in a approach that feels synthetic and overdone extra so than pure. In the meantime, Cynthia’s efforts to dwell with Warren’s growing cognitive points, and overbearing household, by no means appear to strike the suitable chord between humorous and sympathetic towards her plight.
One of many different issues that basically makes the film’s jumbled presentation all of the extra evident is Weithorn’s precise course. In an effort to maintain the power excessive for some scenes, and provides a category film really feel for others, The Greatest You Can‘s visible palette is an inconsistent mixture of intimate handheld angles, which frequently assist amplify sure emotional moments, and overstylized decisions that simply do not actually match the slice-of-life power of the remainder of the movie.
Regardless of its issues, although, there are numerous good issues going for the film. As beforehand talked about, Bacon and Sedgwick’s chemistry is loads pleasant to observe and makes Cynthia and Stan a enjoyable pair to observe, whereas O’Grady makes probably the most of her screentime with a robust flip as Sammi. It’s price mentioning, although, that Sedgwick, when she’s on her personal, can generally really feel a bit over-the-top with the inquisitive facet of her character, with some scenes virtually being a one-person present within the improper sorts of how.
Extra importantly, although, is the best way the film handles Warren’s degenerative decline. Neither Weithorn nor Hirsch let their character be an exaggerated or disrespectful depiction of somebody dwelling with the early levels of dementia, however as an alternative take a really cautious one by bringing some extra lighthearted jokes to the combo whereas additionally, via Meera Rohit Kumbhani’s Pramila Mahesh, permitting viewers to see the cognizant and clever facet to the character that makes the dramatic last act all of the extra emotional.
General, The Greatest You Can left this reviewer feeling decidedly cut up down the center. Its generally rushed pacing and overstuffed arcs typically work in opposition to the significant messages on the core of the story, notably the ending, however with sufficient charming moments and soulful performances from its solid, notably Bacon and Sedgwick, it actually toes the road between being a must-watch and a suitable skip.
The Greatest You Can begins streaming on Netflix on December 25.