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Saturday, February 7, 2015

Wish I Was Here (2014)

According to other reviewers who actually know about Hollywood, Zach Braff had trouble with this movie.  He couldn't get a Hollywood backer to fund this project (or maybe he couldn't get a backer to do it on his terms, who knows), so he crowd sourced the funding to make it. There was a to do about whether someone who is well known should use crowd sourcing, but as an occasional donator to such causes, you usually get something back for your support, so hopefully they all got a free movie ticket or something of that sort.

I knew none of this back story when I saw the film, and both my spouse and I enjoyed it.  Aidan Bloom (ably played by Mr. Braff) is an unsuccessful actor who is well into his 30's and dependent on his wife Sarah (Kate Hudson) to support the family.  He consoles himself with the thought that she loves her job but in fact she does not.  The crisis comes when his father, who has been paying his two children's school fees, is diagnosed with metastatic cancer and decides that he wants to spend all his money on an improbable and not medically recommended cure.  So two things happen.  Aidan has to home school his two children and deal with his issues with his father, which also entails dealing with his brother and his issues with family.  It is all very emotionally complicated.  The good news is that while Aidan does not entirely enter the world of grown ups, he does move forward, it seems like his kids will be okay, and the movie never looses site of the fact that it is at heart a comedy.  Highly recommended.

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