The Anniversary Party

Rating:
Summary: rent a good woody allen film instead. this film is annoying.
Review: i rented this movie because we were bored. i read the list of cast members and should have known i wouldn't like it; all-star casts are usually not a good thing; they have too much attached to them already. anyway, the cast includes: jennifer jason leigh (co-writer, co-director), gwenyth paltrow, kevin kline, parker posey, jennifer beals, alan cumming (co-writer, co-director), and others. the fact the the writers/directers are also the main characters makes it entirely egocentric. the plot is a little too woody allen-esque with all the rich actor/actress/painter/intellectual types who have mid-life problems and talk about it over white wine. the absolute worst part of the film was that midway through, everyone at the party drops a hit of Ecstacy (brought to the party by Gwenyth) and supposedly they are all "rolling". however, after about 2 minutes of the lovey-dovey-happy time generally associated with the drug, suddenly there are fights and tears and crying and lots of not-happy things that generally do not occur when people are rolling on ecstacy. people on E usually don't get angry and yell at their husbands, or feel jealousy and call their neighbor a whore. t hey also didn't portray any of the obvious physical symptoms of people on E. it was not realistic at all, and that element of the film should have just been taken out. i could see other elements of the film that were very good, brilliant moments, but the pace of the film, the amount of screaming and overacting that j.j. leigh did, and the overall tone were just horrible. the characters were flat, and there were too many of them. there you go.

Rating:
Summary: Abysmal waste of talent
Review: Well, this has to be one of the most excruciating films ever made with such a top-drawer ensemble cast. The story is hackneyed and pointless, the characters are not only gratingly irritating but, more problematic, uninteresting, and the film becomes more and more painful as it progresses. With so many fine actors involved, you keep expecting something of value to transpire - but, before you waste two precious hours of your life watching this dreck, let me assure you that it never happens. The only amazing part is that somehow Cumming and Leigh concoct an ending that is even more contrived and ridiculous than the rest of the film. As one of the other reviewers mentioned, if this is how these people really live, I'd rather not know.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: So, One day I rent this movie because I had see some a article on it and I was really board, so I thoug way not. but on my god, I fell love with this story. To beginning with there was the story and the time of the story. Then the characters, and actors. It was one, if not the only movie I felt toldly involded with. I really true though I could be you of this character and my friend were there. I don't mean to sound like a freak but I did. Although I would never have my grandmother watch it, I made my sister watch it the night after I rented. And although I had seen it I was unable to pull myself away again. I hope everyone watches it. There are some many things that amazed me, from characters to lighting, it was so natural and true.

Rating:
Summary: Must Miss---Simply Dreadful
Review: Hubby and I unite on this one, calling it the worst movie we've seen all year, or in the bottom 3 films. What is it about? The most unlikable characters imaginable, all who work in the film industry. Featuring one obnoxious, self indulgent character after another, they all proceed to wallow together and snipe at one another in a "celebration" of the lead couple's Anniversary. That every one of these people only has others hang around him or her to advance "the" film career is hardly a revelation. I couldn't stand being around any of them for over a minute. Ironically, we like most of the actors seen here in other films, Leigh, Klein, Paltrow, et al, and conclude that being in this film was an enormous lapse of judgment on all their parts. OTOH, if this was letting their hair down and showing us what they are really like in their private Hollywood lives, I feel sorry for all of them. Ugh.

Rating:
Summary: A vanity project
Review: This is definitely more interesting than a lot of the mass-market Hollywood pap that makes it into multiplexes, but that's not saying a whole lot. Basically, the plot and (mostly improvised, I think) dialogue are nothing spectacular. The actors work really hard to try to seem "natural," as if they're filming a reality show instead of a movie, but none of them quite succeed. Gwyneth Paltrow in particular is very annoying as the film's airheaded "perfect" girl, and Phoebe Cates is quite a scenery-chewer--it's as if she's trying to make up for all the years she spent doing no acting whatsoever. Parker Posey's talents are completely wasted here. I'm a fan of Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming, but this is a self-indulgent, forgettable film that never lives up to its potential.

Rating:
Summary: Be a voyuer at a very real looking Hollywood party.
Review: Jennifer Jason Leigh (Fast Times at Ridgemont High's Stacy!) is still gorgeous, Alan Cumming is charming. They invite their friends to make a movie about them all having a party. It seems real. Especially Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates and their actual children, (their children's "performances for the party" (and us the viewer), look so genuine. You really feel like you're at the party. You wish you could actually be invited to the party.

Rating:
Summary: Egocentric, Neurotic, Annoying Film
Review: "The Anniversary Party" was full of big-headed Hollywood actors and it was not worth my time. I couldn't stand the characters, who were all neurotic and psycho. It was as if these actors made the movie for themselves, and I wasn't invited to their "Party."

Rating:
Summary: A slow beginning, but when it picks up you're swept away.
Review: I wasn't all that enthusiastic when i put this movie in. And i will admit first off that it does start out a little on the slow side, but once it picks up it is one of the most intense and well-acted movies of the year. It shows the two-sided nature of people in such perfection that you see a lot of yourself. There are scenes where you're yelling at the screen because the actors make you become so involved in their life that you feel present at the party. I honestly don't know how someone could not enjoy this movie. The only way i could imagine that is that they don't get past the slow beginning. This beautiful story of human nature and relationships gone awry is well worth the wait...

Rating:
Summary: A good flick but....
Review: "The Anniversary Party"reeks of "Don's Party",that Aussie dramedy from the 70s where truths spill out unexpectedly, relationships become altered and/or re-analyzed. So this movie isn't original by any means but it's definately a sight better than "The Big Chill",that other ensemble movie that also had Kevin Kline. But where the characters in "The Big Chill"were somewhat likeable, Cumming and Leigh(perhaps by design)have made almost every character the last person you'd ever want to meet. And while this is part of the joke,you can't help but be a bit uncaring about them when affected by tragedy. Jennifer Beals along with Mina Badie seem to be the only characters who're sincere about being at the gathering. You actually feel for Beal's character when she interacts with Cumming in one of the more heavy scenes. Also,as funny and smarmy the jokes were,they still seemed a bit forced just like some of the acting and dialogue. So much so that the Leigh/Cates kitchen scene almost mirrors thier lunch hour/carrot scene from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" 20 years ago:Cates chewing up the scene and Leigh just barely catching up to show off her chops. Cumming is rather interesting as the man-child writer and works well with the rest of the cast,although he too has a couple of scenes where the overacting gets too thick. I felt bad for Parker Posey ,Jane Adams and John C.Reilly as thier roles could've almost been phoned in. Still,I've been a fan of Posey since "Clockwatchers" and "Kicking and Screaming"so any camera time is good camera time in my book. The pacing of the movie ebbs and flows,just like the energy of any other party you've ever attended but the last 1/3 stumbles a bit. The commentary on the DVD provides huge insight into how the film was made and what went into making the script(deemed "amazingly effortless" by Leigh) All in all,it's not going to set the indie film industry on fire but it's still an engaging and enjoyable movie. And it was rather clever for Leigh and Cumming to bring in thier closest friends from both "Fast Times" and "Dorothy Parker and the Vicious Circle" as a sort of inside joke.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Horrible
Review: There are bad movies, and then there are BAD movies. Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is a bad movie. The Anniversary Party is a BAD movie.
The Anniversary Party comes along making assertions of importance and claiming to present a serious social statement, but fails even to simply entertain. Bad movies seem to know they're bad; they have no such delusions of grandeur, but are often mildly amusing if nothing else.
The Anniversary Party, written and directed by Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh, who also star in the film, is 115 minutes of pure, excruciating boredom. The movie involves, obviously, an anniversary party for Hollywood couple Joe and Sally Therrian (Cumming and Leigh), whose marriage is anything but stable, and spans a period of approximately 24 hours.
The Therrians are joined at their feeble bash by Cal and Sophia Gold (Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates), Mac and Clair Forsyth (John C. Reilly and Jane Adams), Skye Davidson (Gwyneth Paltrow), and Ryan and Monica Rose (Denis O'Hare and Mina Badie). We find eventually that Davidson is the star of Joe's new movie, that Cal Gold is co-starring with Sally in some other movie directed by Mac Forsyth, and that the Roses are the Therrian's disgruntled neighbors.
The Anniversary Party is bad from the very beginning. The audience is thrust into the lives of people they don't know and introduced to new characters without actually learning anything about them. I was able to gather that these people are rich, and presumably famous, but at no point did I feel connected to any of them in any way. In my mind, one sign of a good movie is when it sucks you in, so to speak, and you care what happens to the characters and you forget about real life for a little while. I couldn't shake the painful feeling that I couldn't care less about these characters. And therein lies the problem with The Anniversary Party: the characters are all there is. There is no significant action, no plot to speak of, and only one setting. With characters the audience cannot identify or connect with, this movie has nothing going for it.
The party itself is bad. Nothing exciting happens, except when everyone takes some ecstasy about an hour into the film. But at that point, it's way too little too late. I went from feeling like I was at a boring party where I didn't know anyone to feeling like I was the only sober person at a party full of a bunch of drunk people I didn't know. The characters were giggling about things that weren't funny, which only annoyed me as I sat wishing the movie actually was funny.
The movie itself even looks bad. It was shot entirely using digital cameras, which gives the movie its weak appearance, as the filming appears constantly unsteady and amateur, and the colors are drab. The Therrian's home is beautiful, but is wasted as a set on this disaster.
Even the messages presented in The Anniversary Party are bad. All Hollywood men are egocentric pricks and Hollywood women are neurotic and obsessively skinny. So what? That story has been told countless times in ways far more powerful than this. Those Hollywood-types do drugs, too. Uh-oh! Again, I got the feeling of "been there, done that better." Sophia Gold even, at one point, tells Sally she should not have kids because they rob you of the option of suicide. Kids are a joy and a privilege, not a burden binding you to continue to live.
The Anniversary Party is almost entirely without positives, but not quite. It is well acted; no one turns in horrible performances by any means, but the greatest acting in the world could not have made this script worthwile. Gwyneth Paltrow is pretty, and I liked Phoebe Cates, though not for any good reason. But as it happens, Paltrow isn't good looking enough to carry a boring film, and Cates has the line about her kids robbing her of the option of suicide, almost negating the vague positives of both. On the plus side, the film did allow me to focus my attention for an extended period of time on thoroughly cleansing my nostrils through the alternate use of each index finger.
Toward the end of the movie, Joe gets a phone call and finds out his sister has died. I think that was my favorite part of the movie; his sadness felt like some small retribution for making me sit through this movie. The audience then watches the Therrians sign their tax returns. Yes. As if this somehow constitutes entertainment.
I wanted to storm out of this movie after 20 minutes; I could tell that quickly that The Anniversary Party was going to be disapppointing. Instead, I stayed, and it made for two of the more mind-numbing hours of my life. The film was supposed to be a quasi-touching depiction of the interactions of a group of celebrity friends. If those are the lives "people like that" truly lead, then count me out. I left the theater happy that I could switch off the miserably boring, superficial existence depicted in The Anniversary Party. But more than anything, I left thinking, "That was a BAD movie."