No sympathetic character; impossible dialog ***spoilers***

This is really pretentious filmmaking. The writer only did one other forgettable movie, about 20 years ago! You can't fault the actors in this, or the casting. It's the writing. Let me tell you why:

1. It seems to be in vogue these days to present some really unlikeable character, have her hate and be hated by everyone, because that makes her more "complex" or "interesting" than if she was simply suffering pain and had some outbursts here and there. No, she has to be a very unlikeable bitch, and then, if you can make a movie where the audience, at one point, feels sorry for her, YOU WIN! See? The idea is that instead of having to actually provide background or stir sympathy of why she might think she's a bad mother, or how she interacted with her kid, or any decent human side of her (because that takes too much work, and you could easily go overboard and "sap it up") it is much better to do the MINIMALIST thing and have us just stare at her griping, curmudgeonly sourpuss the entire movie, and when she finally cries, you are supposed to cry. When she sees an oversize photo of her dead son in her living room, she cries and then ....you guessed it! YOU cry. Success. Now that is pretentious filmmaking.

2. Impossible dialog and situations: A strange woman comes up to a grieving widower who just lost his wife to suicide within the week, and he lets her into his house, knowing she must be some sort of crank, and they say each other is F**d up, and instead of saying goodbye--he even gets interested in her healing process, even though HE just lost his wife, yet she lost her son a YEAR AGO?? (they said her pins were in her leg for over a year.) Why does the man even care about her, or cart her around? She goes to a cafe and then just abandons them. He should be the one suffering and acting out, but NO--she is the primadonna of this pity party, boys--and don't you forget it! She is rude to him, too, and he still hangs around her like a puppy dog..and actually doesn't even want sex?? Their dialog was stupid--for example, any normal person would quickly ask, "I detect a British accent-are you from the UK?" or something like that. No, Aniston's character is not in the least interested in such small talk. I didn't find their relationship credible in the least.

The most cringeworthy scene happened towards the end, with the teenage girl thief. When she picks up that thief (how stupid is that?) and they don't know each other at all, and here's how the conversation goes:

"Where'd you get those scars? Something gory?"

"I fell 10,000 feet from a plane and my parachute failed" (why does she always lie? There's no reason for it. The best way to shut this kid up is to tell her the truth, and then wallow in the sympathy)

"Yeah, right" (why doesn't she believe her? She doesn't know her. Parachutes do fail, after all)

"So you want to be an actor, huh?"
"Yep"
"Well, you'll just end up in porn. That's what happens to all girls from Idaho." (what?? Why is she saying this? This is just mean, and what does she know about Hollywood? She's not a Hollywood lawyer.)

"That won't happen to me. Have you always been a shrew?"
(Why does this teenage kid talk so casually like this? A good thief would be trying to gain their confidence and appear nice---after all, they're giving her a ride--not push them away with insults)

"Someone knows their Shakespeare." (Huh? Just because she said "shrew" as in The Taming of the Shrew? Shrew is a common English word! Ridiculous script!)

The "wary" teenage thief agrees to COME HOME WITH HER AND BAKE A CAKE in return for a ride to LA? What sort of ridiculous deal is that? Why would Aniston think this waif knows how to bake better than her maid?
As she walks into the kitchen, the thief says, "Just *beep* stay out of my way." (What?? Why talk that way? She's not afraid of offending her host and be kicked to the curb?)

Then, to top it off, she actually CAN bake a delicious cake with homemade frosting. How credible is that? What a coincidence! You mean the Mexican maid couldn't do that? And nobody had to run to the store for ingredients? RIDICULOUS!

Oh, and I forgot. She actually takes this cake, after finding out the thief who cooked it made off with her purse and valuables, to the "grieving" widower's house, as a birthday cake for his son! Unbelievable! What if the foul chick peed in the cake or something? After all, she's a poor thief and probably hates spoile rich women like her host. No matter! Give the cake to a child to eat!

I don't see why people can sit through such ridiculous scenes and dialog and not wrinkle their nose. So many people seemed to like this movie, but I could figure out pretty early that it was about GUILT, and that would be the only explanation why she hasn't healed at all in a year and had so much anger. But unlike in Good Will Hunting (a much superior film) when Robin Williams tells Matt Damon "It's not your fault" over and over until Damon bawls, where I actually teared up because I could feel his guilt breaking free, I felt NOTHING when she sat on the railroad tracks with the big reveal, "I was a good mother" after the ghost chick says "Say it". That was probably because in Damon's case, his character was working class and probably suffered a lot, and he had abusive parents and so you can see how children are made to feel false guilt and then let it go. But we see ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of her past with her child, that would make us see false guilt--nothing. The filmmaker was too lazy or scared to actually weave in the significant moments of her past with this child. We are supposed to take, AT FACE VALUE, that she has now officially gotten over her guilt, after listening to a pretty ghost (who, by the way, no background of her chronic pain or suicide is given us either).

There were many other scenes that did not make sense--such as why does she need to go to Mexico to get drugs--she is rich and has good health insurance---aren't painkillers in the US strong enough for you?? And when she gets caught at the border, her husband magically bails her out, and she comes back and treats him like crap. Yeah, that makes me love her more! After all, it's much worse to deal with such a disgusting man as we saw right there, so violent and ugly in that suit and tie, than to rot in a Mexican jail. Makes so much sense!

I was thoroughly disgusted at this lazy, minimalist pretentious product, and I had to air my feelings here and say some reasons why.