This movie pulls a lot of stuff out of the cupboards, throws them in a boiling pot of water and serves them up for supper. I'm talking about the stuff we don't like talking about. The stuff that you only hear from the drunk, bitter people at dinner parties. The impermanence of life, memory, everything we hold dear. That we will never truly know anyone in this world, and that even our spouses - should we be lucky enough to find someone to share this with - have thoughts that would break our heart were they spoken aloud. That many of us deny these things, and stay, because of the investment, because that's all that waits for us out there anyway.
Yup. Seriously. All that stuff. For supper.
It's also screamingly funny. If you had any doubts, Jim can play an amazing four year old. Hell, Jim's daily life is probably spent covering up his four-year-old-like brain.
This is the sort of movie you could watch a dozen times and keep catching things you missed. Oh, all the books were facing bind in. Oh, Kate's hair is green in this memory.
You know something else I liked about this movie? It ran the billing about 20 minutes in; long after I was hooked and forgetting this was a movie. The Coen brothers did the same thing in Raising Arizona. If I ever direct a movie, I'm gonna do the same thing. It pulls people in.
