Molly

Rating:
Summary: Flowers for Molly
Review: A great performance by Shue does not overshadow the fact that we have seen this story before. Flowers for Algernon and Charly were the original stories from the 60's. This a modern take on the stories, but if you've seen or read the previous stories you know the outcome. This is a good drama to rent but I would not buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Typical
Review: But it isn't as bad as I'd anticipated. I'm a long time John Duigan fan, so I had to see it. And yes, this is a career low for him. But one of the major problems with this dvd is that it is using the studio cut of the movie, which removes about 20 minutes from the film. Is the movie any better with those 20 extra minutes? I don't know, but it does explain how some characters seem to just float through the movie. Their roles may have been reduced in the editing process. The movie is also just plain weird or goofy in certain sections (Molly's reaction when she sees the bodybuilders or when she wets her pants).

Duigan is truly a gifted director: see Flirting, The Year My Voice Broke, or Sirens before judging his work or his capability. I just hope to heaven that he returns to writing his own films, as well as directing.

Rating:
Summary: Okay, it isn't very good...
Review: But it isn't as bad as I'd anticipated. I'm a long time John Duigan fan, so I had to see it. And yes, this is a career low for him. But one of the major problems with this dvd is that it is using the studio cut of the movie, which removes about 20 minutes from the film. Is the movie any better with those 20 extra minutes? I don't know, but it does explain how some characters seem to just float through the movie. Their roles may have been reduced in the editing process. The movie is also just plain weird or goofy in certain sections (Molly's reaction when she sees the bodybuilders or when she wets her pants).

Duigan is truly a gifted director: see Flirting, The Year My Voice Broke, or Sirens before judging his work or his capability. I just hope to heaven that he returns to writing his own films, as well as directing.

Rating:
Summary: An absolute disaster from start to finish.....
Review: Earning a comparison to any of Ed Wood's camp classics, this film attempts to pass off Elisabeth Shue as a "Rain Man"-like woman who undergoes a "Charly"-like operation and in the end, loses her gifts in an "Awakenings"-like reversal. In other words, nothing of originality occurs. The acting is beyond inept (Shue should turn in her SAG card immediately), the direction bizarre (does anyone look like they know what they are doing?), and the script loaded with cheap sentimentality and forced "humor." The film never really decides on what it should be: Is it a serious drama? A cutesy comedy? Who knows? As always in films of this type, the mentally challenged individual is imbued with the wisdom of the gods, instructing us all on our collective failures and our need to appreciate life's beauty. Further, this film seems to believe that if we were only willing to comb the various institutions of the world we would find people able to change our planet with insightful commentary and brilliant philosophical theories. That silliness aside, the film remains a shocking waste because it makes no effort to establish living, breathing characters, nor does it care whether we understand the story from scene to scene. But let's get back to Shue.....oh my poor Shue. When she's not reminding the audience that she is acting with a capital A (she seems to be saying, "Look Academy, I can really act!"), she poors on the pathos like it was going out of style. To purchase this DVD would be to prove that one clearly has a driving biological need to waste money in the worst way possible.

Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming
Review: Elisabeth Shue was excellent as Molly. Her facial expressions and mannerisms were heartwarming. This movie helped me to realize how much we take for granted in our daily lives. This movie makes you want to embrace life and make the most of every moment. I think Elisabeth Shue did an outstanding performance in this movie. She was absolutely perfect for the part of Molly.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhere between truth and fantasy
Review: I have a family member with autism. We see more and more of these people in film because sadly their numbers are increasing. I found Elizabeth Shue's performance fairly convincing although I must note there is a hollywood or fairy tale quality to the film. However I found the growing understanding of Molly about her own life, her own world and the world which her brother, Buck and other normal and typical folks inhabit thought provoking and real. I liked how the director depicted Molly's problems with sensory intergration issues trying to show the audience how difficult it is for folks with autism to function in the world and filter out the noise. I would have liked to have seen more time spent on how her brother dealt with his sister's disability prior to her surgury and after her retreat back from the normal typical world

Rating:
Summary: Molly, wierd stuff
Review: I love Elizabeth Shue and I think her acting has become very strong in the past decade so I am amazed that she chose a script that transforms a 25+ year old mentally retarded woman with physical disabilities to a very well read and very coordinated woman with a photographic memory. It's not that the fanciful plot isn't a good story it's just so poorly told that it makes the transformation seem the overnight result of an experimental procedure that gives a false represnetation of the 'treatment' of people mental disorders. I like many aspects of the movie and it has some moments that are endearing. Overall, in the end, I didn't like the movie based on it's haphazard beginnings and many unexplained plot set ups. Someitmes the characters don't seem to belon in the movie at all- as if they are passing through. Watch for yourself, see what you think. It is worth watching, once. Maybe more.

Rating:
Summary: A mainstream but still low teck movie
Review: I say this movie has good acting in it but it was the hole plot and the dioloug of this movie that did not help the story. It is not a boring movie but it is not entertaning I say if you want a basic movie with some emotion but a movie that dosent take your breath away I say you should rent this one.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Amazing!
Review: Molly is a great movie. The more times I watch it, the better it gets. This is a movie which deals with a disabled person (Shue), and ,as a disabled survivor myself (traumatic brain injury from an auto accident), I can fully attest to the fact that so many of the points dealt with in this movie are 100% accurate. I know this only a movie, but I always get so emotional watching this video (and I hardly ever get emotional otherwise). So, to sum up, this is a fabulous movie that needs to be viewed, if at all possible!

Rating:
Summary: Molly -- Entertaining & Informative
Review: My wife and I recently rented this movie on DVD and we both liked it very much. I've read many negative reviews of this movie and I sorely disagree as I do with many professional reviewers of many other movies. To me a movies does not have to be perfect in every detail to be entertaining and informative, as Molly was. Many reviewers are locked up in their own elitist ivory towers and think they can recommend, or not, movies for the rest of us. Having been a counselor in the past and knowing several autistic persons, I believe Elizabeth Shue did an incredible job in portraying Molly. Aaron Eckhart, Thomas Jane, and Jill Henessy all did credible performances in support. - Dick Mann - this text refers to the DVD edition.