Pretty Good

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Blistering performances.

Great film all the locations were real downtown LES spots especially the Antique Shop "Billy's Antiques" and they used the real shop and owner Billy.Also the Everyothers are a great band.The music is very enjoyable not hokey. Paz de La Huerta's part is completely on the other end of the spectrum from Boardwalk Empire,Limits of Control and Enter the Void.Critics have said she can play only one type of role ..well they have not seen The Guitar.The film feels ice cold just like it is in January in New York City.I find the plot totally believable because people do weird things when they know that they are going to die.I know Amy Redford will follow the great tradition of film making.I hope she makes another one soon.

A lot of people dislike this movie, judging the main character's actions because it wasn't a mainstream one, citing it as pointless and superficial. But you really have to take it for what it is or look a little bit deeper to appreciate it though. No it's not an Oscar worthy indie flick, but it does show a lot of hidden realism and lessons particularly the ones that we don't always notice.The rundown: In one day, she's told she has one month to live from cancer to the throat, gets dump pathetically by her boyfriend and is let go from her job of four years. Melody than rents and expensive loft and shops with her credit cards like there is no tomorrow. She gives up on her vegetarian diet and has affairs with two unavailable people, both of different sexes. But more importantly she spends every waking hour she has when she's not shopping, sexing, or eating dedicated to learning and playing the guitar she's always wanted and even resorted to stealing as a child.In any other movie, she would either find religion, see her family and friends or fly off to Paris, do drugs and party, but instead she hides, she doesn't even want to deal with the world. Instead, she let happiness come to her in the form of materialism she never knew was there, as well suitors (yes, they approached her) – and it was great to see her happy. But it wasn't due to the carelessness spending or multiple partners, but due to her own gratification, she was happy because she let herself be, because she was pleasing herself, throwing away the social constraints and expectations, but in a realistic and passive-aggressive way only the news of 3 sucking news could bring. During all this, I was impress with Saffron Burrows's ability to have her character maintain her emotions to the people around her but at the same time express them to the audience.(SEMI-SPOILER ALERT)The one thing about this movie, it has a happy ending, it's scientifically unrealistic sure, but the meaning constructed from it is more important to see: Melody is brought back to reality and learns that life goes on outside of her bubble, people will always leave, your childhood will always be a part of you (the guitar is her rosebud), you will always have debt, you will always have to live by society standards, but you are the only one truly able to make yourself happy.

The "Guitar" by Amy Redford is in no means a perfect work of art, though such things are subjective via the history of the viewer. I found the film entertaining, and work by Saffron Burrows above average. Her portrayal of everyday worker who receives about the worst news a physician can give, with a deadline on top of it. (There are also other issues involved on that fateful day, which are better off left to unfold themselves.)(Possible spoilers)************** It is not about someone who decides to go out and spend her way to her end, it is a about a person who has been told all her life she can not have the life she wishes, and decides to spend those last days with her best friend, herself. Fate does not offer her a chance to stay with that, as a number of people come into her life, and some surprising new friendships evolve.It is also about getting that one thing you were always denied, and even with so little time left, a resolve to learn how to use that item, though no one but you will know of your accomplishment. For this is what I believe the movie is about, the main character's quest for something that had been denied by family and practicality of character. For it is about Burrow's character allowing herself a chance to dream, to reach beyond herself. I was never sure just exactly how the film would end, but knew that once she had gotten that dream guitar of her's, her and the guitar would end it together. If you want a movie about character, and characters you can feel and care about, I would say try this one.

Bittersweet and low-key until the fairy-tale ending, The Guitar is, while not exactly a masterpiece, very enjoyable. And the ending, though it does call for a certain "suspension of disbelief", seemed to me both uplifting and fairly funny; especially the way in which Melody acquired her new guitar amp. I was also quite amused in trying to recognize the New York landmarks. The only one I'm pretty sure of was the next to last scene -- I think it was Tompkins Square Park. I thought the parental guidance comment of "frontal female nudity" was over the top; the nudity was very brief and discreet. Of course, the "lesbian" sexuality would, until very recently, have earned the movie a strict NC17. All in all, a charming and enjoyable film -- I look forward to seeing more from Amy Redford.