Good grief!

*Warning: Review may be sloppy because of finals, but I needed to write this before I forget, which has sort of happened already.*

I walked into The Greatest without too many expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. I recently watched An Education, so I expected that Carey Mulligan would be a stand out in the film, considering the hit and misses that are of Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan. Most of my expectations were not bad, but were underestimated.

The Greatest is about a family's grieving process after their son/brother dies in a car crash, and leaves his unfamiliar girlfriend pregnant. The movie delves into the different ways that people grieve without getting to depressing and highlights relationships between each of the family members and other people, including Carey Mulligan's character, Rose. Rose plays a role in their lives that she doesn't even understand, and neither do they.

The story itself is simple and charming. There was only one instance when I was a little worried about the dialogue. I was a little worried about the somewhat awkward jokes that were spoken by the little brother character... but I thought it made the movie more light-hearted and he was probably the only comedic factor of the movie. I enjoyed his performance. Rose's character is charismatic and charming, innocent and daring. It really fit. I love Carey Mulligan. Susan Surandon gave a pretty average performance, but it worked for her. Her emotion wasn't really portrayed that well, and I thought it was dry. The same could be said about Pierce Brosnan... dude can't cry (that is not a spoiler). He was more emotional and convincing than Sarandon, but I think his character was a little flat. The highlight for me, I feel as a girl, was the whole romantic subplot that takes place in the past, but is conveniently placed throughout the movie, either when Rose is retelling their story or at certain strategic plot points. I loved it. I think it was the main reason I wanted to see the movie from the trailers.

Walking out of the movie, I was confused about whether I loved it or whether it was pretty mediocre. I give it credit for sucking me in, but making me feel betrayed that it fooled me. So, I think overall, the plot may not be that amazing, but I feel that it took an idea and tried to give it a new spin, and the result was a very coherent piece of drama/romance. It didn't try to be some kind of indie classic or epic drama or anything; it didn't try too hard at all to be anything. It takes guts these days to not try to stand out, and they just pretty much aimed to be another pretty good movie but nothing too full of themselves. Even though it probably won't be a movie I will remember, I would recommend it, and in the end, that's what matters.

3 out of 4 (on second thought, I thought about changing this to 2.5)

Rabble rabble rabble!