The Longest Week

Conrad Valmont (Jason Bateman) is 40, privileged, emotionally stunted, and living off the family's wealth in the family's high class NYC hotel. He is supposed to be writing a book but lives without achievements. His parents separate and cut him off from the family fortune. With no means, he takes the subway to his friend Dylan (Billy Crudup) for a place to crash. Along the way, he meets and falls for struggling model Beatrice (Olivia Wilde). Despite Dylan claiming Beatrice, Conrad pursues her in a week-long affair. With the pretentious narration and the particular characters, this is a story of relatively unappealing people. Conrad has nothing to offer and Dylan is little better. Even Beatrice is superficially drawn. There is no depths to these characters. Conrad's eventual growth is tenuous at best. The biggest problem is that the characters provide no humor in this suppose comedy. It's intentionally flat with no heart.

I've always liked the three main characters, Bateman, Wilde and Crudup. This is like a Doris Day style comedy with the feel of a more sophisticated script and style, ala Woody Allen. Even has a slightly more serious message than earlier Romantic comedies. Not a bad ride, as far as romantic comedies go. I would recommend it for it's interesting quirks and dialogue.

This is truly awful. It's like the producer's kid saw The Royal Tenenbaums and came home from Brown or Yale and was allowed to make his first movie with a studio budget. Like so many other movies (sorry, "films") now, it's like they said "if we shoot it in NYC nobody will notice how terrible this is!" At least Jason Bateman is in it, but his agent should be horse-whipped for letting him do this.

This film is hilariously self aware. It's almost a test and joke on the viewer and I love it for that. If you take this as a film that's meant to make you feel like you're meant to feel sorry for upper class problems, you've totally missed the point. This is a brilliantly subtle piece, where the story ridicules the entire premise of itself. A latter scene of the book reading is actually an amazing explanation to the inevitable critique of this movie; surreptitiously addressing what they knew the critics would say on a superficial understanding of the true meaning. The bravery of allowing the interpretation to be used against them makes this film all the more incredible. Think about the flippancy of this all happening in a week. Brilliant.

Review: I didn't really enjoy this movie! I found it quite boring and uninteresting. The storyline, which is about a womanising, spoilt brat who suddenly gets his house and allowance taken from him due to his parents splitting up, was pompous and it just seemed to drag after a while. The director chose to stick with the love element by introducing a lady that he meets on the train who just happens to be his best friends date. After falling completely head over heels for the girl, even though his best friend tells him to stay away from her, they end up moving in together after being kicked out of his best friends apartment. When his secret finally comes out about him having no money, she finally leaves him and he ends up back at his best friends house. Basically, I got bored of the film after a while, but the acting wasn't bad and I liked the morality at the end. The narrating through the film, which reminded me of the Royal Tenenbaums, was OK but the director could have easily cut out some of the love story and concentrated on how losing everything for a week had changed his life except for using the narrator to fill in the gaps at the end, but that's just my personally opinion. Average! Round-Up: At 45, Jason Bateman has had quite a good career to date, with movies like Horrible Bosses, Identity Thief, The Switch and the Change-up to name a few, but he still hasn't become a household name. He doesn't really have a unique acting style, but he does have screen charisma which works in movies like Hancock and Juno. In this film, I found his character to be pretty dull but that's not down to his acting. He basically just done what was required by the director. Anyway the movie is watchable but you have to be in the right mood to watch it because it's very one toned. Budget: $15million Worldwide Gross: N\A I recommend this movie to people who are into there black comedies about a man who loses everything and ends up falling in love with his best friends girl. 4/10

Cant believe I just discovered this. Fan of Bateman and Wilde. Really enjoyed it. Slow paced, good acting, cool soundtrack. I'd watch it again.

The Longest Week (2014) What a strangely almost good movie. It has lots of compelling elements, including Jason Bateman as the nice guy leading man (though here he plays a spoiled rich boy). It's a complex enough story, and a love story, and it's set in lovely Brooklyn (an almost Manhattan). It should work. And second leading man Billy Crudup is terrific—better than Bateman. So enjoy it for what it is? Sure. But it will kludge along at times, and will get a bit obvious at other times. The women (girlfriends, mainly) are weakly cast (or weakly directed), which doesn't help. But mostly it's a matter of originality—which is missing. In fact, the whole thing is alike a Woody Allen mashup wannabe. The voice-over will make you think too much of "Vicky Christina Barcelona" and some of the photography of "Manhattan" but in color. (They even cast Allen regular Tony Roberts in a role as, yes, a shrink.) But mostly it's "Annie Hall" redux. In fact, it's almost a remake—girl meets unlikely boy, they have a romance, it goes south, and then boy re-evaluates (with direct stealing of ideas like having the plot reappear as a play, or in this case as a novel). And even if you don't like "Annie Hall" (which I do), you have to admit it came first, and is wonderfully original. To add insult to injury, the whole set design and shooting style is straight out of Wed Anderson, though toned down to the point of being dull. (Anderson is never dull, at least visually.) So what is left? Lots of little moments—quaint remarks (skipping over the brazenly sexist stuff that is meant to be funny and is mostly embarrassing, like the soccer practice) and a generally nice flow of events. It's easy to watch even if you aren't enthralled. Director and writer Peter Glanz is fairly new to the scene, and this movie is a seven day expansion of an earlier indie success, "A Relationship in Four Days." No wonder this one feels about three days too long. See it? Maybe, if you already know you like the cast or the genre. Or maybe just give the Allen films a second try. Worlds apart.

To call "The Longest Week" a delight would be an overstatement. To call it average would be unjust. The movie is a Wodehousian romance which features terrific visuals in almost every frame. That's right... Almost every frame is picture perfect like this is a Wes Anderson film. At the same time, the dialogues and the story are entirely "Allenesque". If you liked Fading Gigolo - an attempt to recreate Allenesque filmmaking - you will fall in love with The Longest Week. Why is Jenny Slate top-billed when the story is clearly about Jason Bateman's philandering character? And why is Jenny Slate even in the movie? You could replace her character with anyone else, and you'd hardly notice any difference. I saw this at a preview screening. I hope the filmmakers realize it and change the billings. The Longest Week has great visuals, good dialogue and soothing sounds (the soundtrack's totally piano and jazz). The film is also 80 minutes long, and yes, I for one was wanting more as the film was in some ways enchanting. If you like Wes Anderson films, give it a shot for its beauty! Not a Wes Anderson fan? C'mon! Olivia Wilde is in the movie and she's drop dead gorgeous!

It's like they couldn't d code whether to rip off woody Allen or Wes Anderson. The bits don't work either.

This film tells the story of a man with ultra rich parents, who is suddenly broke after his parents cut off his allowance. He puts on a cover up and wins a woman's heart, yet he discovers there is something more to life. The interaction between Conrad and Dylan is realistic, thigh they both live in a world beyond most people's reach. Their intense competition between each other and yet almost accomplishing nothing is ironic, but I like the joke about the Volvo going back and forth. The romance subplot is very sweet and convincing, I enjoyed watching it. This is a romantic comedy with a journey of self discovery. It's a pity that the main characters Conrad and Dylan are portrayed to be rather unlikable and arrogant characters who have no clue about the real world. That's because the film is actually enjoyable and rather warm, and if the characters are a bit more likable, people would probably like it more.