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Sunday, July 13, 2014

At Middleton (2013)

This movie is flawed in a number of ways, but pleasant to watch and has a couple of take home messages that are probably not all that important for 20 somethings to think about, but hit close to home for me.  It is a romantic comedy that takes place on a college campus but the main stars of the show are not the rising freshmen who are on the campus tour but rather their parents. 

George (Andy Garcia) is enthusiastic about the college application process and his son Conrad is not.  Edith (Vera Furmiga) is almost painfully difficult as the parent of Audrey, who is not only set on Middleton as her school of choice but on the path that her life will take.  The dialogue in the film is a bit stilted, and that is the major problem to get over here--that, and the fact that Edith is anything but attractive in the beginning so it is unclear why George would spend any more time with her than absolutely necesary.

But he does, and what unfolds across their day is that they are both desperately unhappy in their marriages, and with their children on the brink of leaving the nest they are having to face up to that. Some people do a much better job than others at maintainging and nurturing their marriages across the many years spent in child rearing, and it is something to think about.

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