Powerful

Excellent, a Must See

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

An early prison scene in the film is shocking. Not because of egregious violence or a shower rape scene, but rather because of the" wig-do" Travolta is sporting. The hair, coupled with some weird make up or plastic surgery that have inflicted the actors cheeks, result in making the audience wonder if the film is going to be a comedy.Basically , Travolta is in jail and wants out to spend time with his dying son. He makes a deal with an evil mob guy, and gets his get out of jail card (with strings attached)The film has the requisite early scene where a bad guy disrespects a woman or a child, and he is promptly punished. A mobster shows up at a diner where Travolta has taken junior, interfering with Dad/Son time, and Travolta promptly beats him to a pulp. A device worthy of the Lifetime channel. The only thing missing was an amazon female cop showing up a kicking the bad guys in the testicles.Travolta agrees to emulate the "make a wish foundation" by granting his son multiple wishes, including helping him(Travolta) do a Forgery. A couple of cops are tailing Travolta to try to get to the mob guys, and they are inserted into the story very unconvincingly. The whole thing unfolds in a very unlikely fashion, and about halfway through it looses so much credibility that it becomes impossible to care about any of the characters. I could see this catching on as a cult film comedy, except it is way too boring. Even the Oxygen network crowd would be lost because of the unredeemed drug addict mother. They all go off to Tahiti at the end to live happily ever after, except the kid who, has terminal cancer. It's like a preachy Hollywood message movie without a message or a happy ending. Misses the mark on all counts.

I new nothing about this movie when I picked it up at a local Red Box. Judging by the cover, I expected a feel good romantic drama with all the excitement that young love and forgery schemes contain. I will say that I somewhat enjoyed this movie, but overall it was a disappointment. It was a B movie that I could easily imagine appearing on the Hallmark channel. It was predictable, cliché, and the characters were unrealistic. Also, for a movie staring as many talented people as it was, the acting came across as a bit lazy. It was not one of the better movies I've seen, but it certainly wasn't the worst. I give it 4 out of 10 stars.

It was not a terrible movie, don't let anyone say so. The drama is a bit overplayed in certain parts - especially in one moment from Lauren Bacall, surprisingly. Though the fantastic cast did their best with the material. The film's flaw is the writing. I felt the actors gave very convincing roles given what they had: Dina Eastwood, Alfred Molina, and Hayden Panettiere especially. Josh Hutcherson shows a real natural talent, too. Spoilers to follow.I thought it was weird that the norm of this town was breaking into people's places and snooping around or what-have-you. In a couple of places the sequence of events feels forced - like Molina's character appearing out of nowhere to chat with Joshua. Most awkward for me was how Joshua felt like he had to keep the painting hidden from Everly throughout the whole last third of the film, if he was just going to screw him over anyway. Obviously, he put Dennis in place long before he finished the piece, so why not let Everly keep the painting and enjoy a boosted confidence? It made Everly's search for Joshua not at all exciting.Also, putting Dennis the Menace in the painting was genius, why didn't we get a very clear shot of that? I only just barely saw it when they're scanning the painting. And from a story-teller's perspective, Ann- Marie's "coming out" made the film clunky at the end when her purpose for it was already taken care of by Joshua's planning. She felt inconsequential and silly, whereas she could've admitted what she did to Joshua at the end when he decided to join her anyway (he knew she had done forgeries before). Would have made it more personal, and more redeeming for both of their characters.In the end, I did enjoy it, but mainly for watching a group of actors I seriously enjoy work their craft.

This movie does for forgers what the movie Hackers did for hackers, which is attempt to make them look like the mainstream folks in the audience. Oh, sure, they had silly clothes and some goofy quirks but the bottom line was that they were like everyone else, only more so. And just as Hackers was nonsense, so is Forgers. Real hackers didn't sit around bragging about their computers' specs like a bunch of boy-racers talking about their engines.In fact the Forgers characters are even worse, depicted as talentless con-men or child prodigies who can pick up a brush and dash off a flawless imitation of an old master in a few hours in a gloomy basement.For a real insight to the persona of an art forger look up the career of Eric Hebborn, who really did paint stuff that was often mistaken for very valuable pictures. But he never became wealthy as a result of his work and he was not 15 years old at his peak.Since the story is rather thin, the producers have made it more relevant to the intended audience by adding a drippy love story and a maudlin tale of parental abandonment, made even sillier by casting a 20 year old man for the part of a young boy. He is supposedly a high school freshman and at one point a character states that he thought the boy was "maybe 12 years old". There is no way Mr. Hutcherson would be mistaken for a 12 year old child.One wonders why the writers didn't simply make the character a college dropout. The story would have been just as effective and the romantic dialog would have been more believable. The screenplay has all the traits of a work by a committee. Adults will probably find this movie tedious and rather predictable.Younger viewers may enjoy the romantic aspects of the story.