the audience applauded

Absolutely Brilliant!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film is a messy, chaotic mishmash of sub-plots that predictably fail to amalgamate into one overall, coherent plot. Though little is resolved at the end, the movie isn't a complete waste of time, if only for the pleasure of seeing Adam Sandler play a normal human being for a change. The film tries to be a cautionary tale both for and against the Internet and its misuse, abuse, and overuse, but it fails both ways, and ends up canceling itself out. It tries to remind us that despite the internet - or, perhaps because of it - we are still real, live human beings, with flesh and blood and wants and needs and desires and lusts and fears and angst, but we already knew that since about 2004, so it's about a decade too late.

It's hard to see why this movie has a lowish score. It's one of a few movies that steps up to the mark to offer some thought provoking content, some insight into our human condition, where we are and where we're going. It should be that that is a special thing in our films but it kind of is, and it should be applauded for doing it and doing it well, treating the audience with intelligence and like it has a comprehension level above an 8 year old. Full marks for all that. And extra points too for giving Adam Sandler a non comedy role. I don't know why he doesn't just stick to roles like this that he excels at, or at least doesn't make you hate him for. The young actors were all exceptional in their deliveries, subtle and understated, no cartoon characters here. There's a lot to think about in this movie and it doesn't take sides and try to push an agenda so much as give you multiple ways of looking at the world we're living in. Definitely worth watching and worth the time invested in it. Not something you can say for many movies these days.

The first time I found out about this movie was about a month or two before the actual release date when I saw the trailer on IMDb. I've had 2-3 instances of being completely devoted to a movie just by seeing the trailer, and this was defiantly one of those instances.While usually I prefer to watch the movie before reading the book so that I'll be pleased and not so critical of either media, I couldn't hold out the extra month or two to see the movie and figured that the trailer was so good I might as well read the book. Which the story is very realistic and as I like to put it a "behind the curtains view" of characters and their personal lives. These sort of stories are my favorite, especially when they have a thought provoking somewhat disturbing sub-plot. However, it provides that kind of thought provoking you get from reading a book once and not hundreds of times. So just from the book, the plot was very interesting and while it had a lot of filler moments, of just putting in meaningless moments for emphasis on something later, the fact that you bounce around from these intertwined personalities and families made the story completely. Like I said before, the story focuses on a realistic people but set along with disturbing topics such as anorexia, sex, suicide, pedophilia, etc. So reading the book very much proved to be very dark and sexual and other than the parental characters in the book all the children are still in their last year of junior high which makes these topics more explicitly disturbing. The movie was beautifully directed and very toned down despite still being very sexual and dark. It was pretty close to what you read in the book and centers more around sub-characters that weren't as centered in the book. The movie, like the book, is drawn out too though and you can tell where some parts are just for filling in details and are of little importance.In conclusion of this entire summary, this is a beautiful cult film that a lot of people might enjoy if they read the book as well. In fact I made my friends and some friends of friends read the book and watch the movie like a book club and they agreeably were entranced with the topic and genre. However, if you don't like the book/movie it might be a preference or relatability being that I am a bit younger and related to the themes in the book that the children go through more than the parents.

This is a film that really touches your heart and tugs on a string or two. If you have lost touch with what life is really like for regular (albeit white) middle class Americans - this is an excellent afternoon watch with hubby or your teens. It will certainly create some interesting discussions.Nowadays Hollywood only seems to portray the super-perfect or the violent aspects of teen life or the life of married couples. This is the first film I've seen that lets you know what life is really like in the wake of these Hollywood stereotypes in Middle America. I was less shocked and more heartbroken to see how everyone still had the same needs and feelings as everyone always has (love, hurt, rage, desire, ambition, jealousy) only now texting, sexting, and online dating have taken everything to a whole new level. While I found the movie to be eye-opening and sometimes almost too heartbreaking to watch - in the end it was good to know that even though we middle Americans may have lots of new gizmos to assuage the daily pain we go through - in the end we are all still human.