A warm, carefully crafted dish filled from top to bottom with familiar ingredients that become some how zestier when sprinkled with a dash of satire, this surprise Best Picture Nominee benefits greatly from the hard work of its incredible cast. It's no wonder the film was in the oven for five years - the Hoover family, on paper, must seem woefully uninteresting and unlikable, like a faded recipe in a dusty cookbook. And yet the sincere craft of both directors (Valerie Faris and Jonathon Dayton) has concocted quite a sublime cast, from the delicious Abigail Breslin, to the thick and dark Paul Dano, to the crispy Greg Kinnear to the sweet but strong Toni Collette and finally the Academy Award winning crust of Alan Arkin. It's the sort of meal you can eat again and again and still enjoy the little flavorful idiosyncrasies, thanks in part to the alternating layers of meaty comedy and warm ricotta drama, each layer seperated by a warm, flat noodle of deft acting. Just like Mom used to make.
No comments:
Post a Comment