one of the most IRRESPONSIBLE movies I have ever seen!!

I do you one better, I actually signed up to imdb just to post here.

Before I (briefly) rant, let me just say that saying a movie is bad because the story didn't play out like we wanted it to be is generally (and I would like to emphatize this), GENERALLY not legit. Because we don't get to blame a movie just because the story didn't make us happy in the end. Sad movies can be good, of course, very good in fact.

While I generally agree with what you say in your post, I just wanted to get this out of the way. I don't think your way of arguing would work in pretty much any other case, because harping on a movie because of a story we didn't feel was nice to the protagonist is not a fair way to do it.

HOWEVER: in this movie, the problem is, like you mentioned, that the story line in itself is flawed to an extent that it hurts the movie. This movie could in fact have been great, could have been a great story about growing up, about redeeming oneself, about owning up to your mistakes and about changing lives. Or it could have been great as a story of people who are not able to overcome their own demons, a movie about people who are just rotten, who are for some reason, vile to the core (would not have been a romcom then, but it could have been a great movie nonetheless).
From the first minute of this movie, we root for Kristen Bell. We see her plight, the hardships she's been through. We then get to know that she somehow (we are not told how, which is another flaw of the movie, but discussing this topic would go too far) turned her life around, that she apparently was able to escape the hell that was her high-school and that she became successful, although she might still be lacking self-confidence.

Pitting this darling against her former arch nemesis offers a lot of options to the story. Yet the movie doesn't care about the traits of the protagonist AT ALL. In the end, we are left with some sort of christian message along the line of "turn the other cheek", which MIGHT have been possible, had the characters been explored more deeply or might we have seen whether they evolved or not. But we didn't see any of this. What we saw was a bully that didn't change, a insecure girl that tried to stand up for herself only to be met with a almost total lack of understand for her misery by her family. Which makes us pretty much hate EVERYONE except her (and Charlie, maybe).

In the end, we don't care about anybody in this movie except for Kristen Bell. And we don't even know why, except for the fact that she's a victim of some serious bullying. The movie straddles along, trying to sell itself as some sort of a feel-good comedy for families, when the story line just doesn't fit that bill.

Apart from this, there are about a hundred other problems that make this movie an absolute failure on almost every possible level. I guess the actors were actually pretty good, given the clusterfrakk of a script they have been given. I fail to see why anybody would sign up to star in such a movie though.

Plus one, Joanna was HORRIBLE

@sourpuss Did you finish watching the movie????? Do you forget Joanna wanted Marni's family because her parents had died? The bully apologizes in the end. It has a Hollywood ending where everybody apologizes and become friends again. What movie did you watch???? Maybe you need to talk to a professional about your feelings about school...

A lot of ppl here need to get a life... it is a movie, it is a comedy!

Please go see a shrink if you need a good cry about your life, it will resolve many things for you better than ranting in IMBD. Too long rants are only read by ppl that are also in need of professional help and need to tame and control their emotions, interacting with them only adds to your confusion.

Live your own life beyond Hollywood and add value and meaning to your existence, if others are not compassionate walk away and do not give them your time! Be loving when others fall short because of their social ineptitude.

Gandhi said it best: No one can hurt me without my permission!

In the meantime, try to watch the movie again and have a good laugh, it is Hollywood, remember?!

[deleted]

I agree with you I hated joanna's character she remained a bully and suffered no consequences for her actions. I wanted to see marnie truly stand up for herself and I wanted joanna pay for what she did in a real way.

What I never understood was why Marni didn't say to her in the beginning, look we went to high school together. Don't you remember me? Nip it in the butt right away.

Joanna had to know that Marni was her fiance's sister. She was close to the family, and there is no way that his sister's name would not have been mentioned. So she was not blindsided when she met Marni, and had plenty of time to think about how to handle it. Marni, on the other hand knew her as JJ, and was surprised.

To me, this proves that Joanna had not changed at all. The sea change came after the video was shown, and was too rushed to be believable.

The script was poorly written, with too much emphasis on slapstick, and not enough on believability.

I guess it's like looking at clouds. You see one thing and I see another. Peace.