Good start, but then it gets ruined

Excellent, a Must See

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

cute movie until the very end and then it sucks, I tried to look up a summery of the movie and could not find one that described it's ending, if I had I would not have watched!!!!!! A good clean movie, good for a family to watch, nice story line and went along well. A lighthearted movie nice entertainment through out the entire movie with the interaction of the characters both the children and the adults, a nice mix of characters that seems to make the movie enjoyable to watch, a movie that is like I enjoy, and escape from the reality and tragedy that we see in everyday life and the the drama and suspense of a movie in the drama genre and then along come the end ...... truly a Sukey end with the mother being killed. This destroyed the lightheartedness of the movie and turned it from a # 10 recommended to watch to a # 1 do not watch!!!!!!!

I had hopes that "The Flamingo Rising" would be a "black comedy" of outrageous eccentrics trying to out annoy each other along the lines of Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi in "Neighbors". The added interest of a gigantic drive in theater and a funeral parlor replacing two adjacent houses, only made the ground more fertile for dark comedy. Unfortunately my expectations were not met, because "The Flamingo Rising" has a severe identity crisis, and is a real mixed bag of underdeveloped characters and concepts. The bag includes feuding neighbors, teenage romance, marital drama, 50s nostalgia, religious guilt, and tragedy. This total mish-mash leads to a fatal identity crisis, and certainly a missed opportunity for the "black comedy" I was anticipating. - MERK

Even though the subject matter of this film was appealing, the terribly shallow character portrayals and almost cartoonish-plot & characters was just appalling.The subject matter was far too SERIOUS for the goofy way in which these characters--especially the adults--were portrayed. The father, the undertaker, the mother, and the airplane pilot all acted mostly like caricatures--buffoons. The kids seemed to have more smarts and sensitivity than the adults in this picture.Another thing that was a big turnoff was the constant HARPING about the so-called "glories of adoption" vs. biological families. Doesn't Hallmark EVER get tired of this dreary theme and clearly-political nonsense? They're as bad as ABC & BahBah Wah-Wah (Barb Walters) with their relentless cramming adoption down the throats of viewers. It sure gets old.The subject matter in this film should have been handled with more dignity and less lunacy. The ending was especially ridiculous...This movie was disappointing for all the above reasons.

Having read the novel that the film was based on, I found the film a very superficial and watered down version of the story. As with all 'first person' narratives the inner voice of the book is lost, thus taking away a lot of the passion and intensity of the original. The importance of the role of Alice is lost and the loss of the sexual aspect of the story dilutes the tension and southern steaminess.