I thought this was good - probably better than my grade suggests - but the thing is I just couldn’t enjoy it like the people around me seemed to. It was just too sad.
I remember calling Lars and the Real Girl “a modern age fairy tale for the damaged, not quite grown-up” and I love it for that. This is pretty much the opposite. Charlize Theron’s character is fucked up in the worst way and so many of the laughs from the audience came at moments where I was too sad for her to really join in. There was one particular moment near the end involving her and Patton Oswalt that got big laughs and I just couldn’t see the humour - or at least not enough to supersede the genuine emotion of it. And it feels weird to be saying this because black comedy is usually my thing, but on first viewing at least it felt a bit more like laughing at than laughing with.
I look forward to seeing it again. Maybe when I find it less jarringly sad I’ll find it funnier.
Grade: ***
