Direction + Acting was atrocious *Spoilers
The tv in the hospital waiting room was on LMN channel this morning and I had to sit through this. To call the acting by Jenninfer Grant & Nina Dobrev wooden would be putting it mildly. But I can't put all the blame on them. The script and direction were equally bad. As soon as the police start investigating the robbery/shooting at the jewelry store where Grant's character works the daughter starts acting guilty as sin. Yet Grant's character is directed to act as if her daughter's behavior might be because she's starting her period. Daughter has loser older boyfriend. Mother's place of employment is robbed. A young girl is involved. The police says it was an inside job because the robbers clearly had info only someone connected would the store would know. Hello?? Then they find a button likely connected to the crime and it happens to be from the daughter's school uniform. Ok skip all that. Daughter gets stinking drunk by the river and her best friend calls the mother in a panic. From her voice on the phone and her reaction after she arrives you'd think she was coming to pick her daughter up from the the soda shop. Grant's character shows about as much emotion throughout the film as a frozen cadaver would!
The daughter meanwhile has the same pained look on her face no matter what is going on in the scene. I will give her kudos for the believable way she opened & closed her cell phone as needed. I loved the part at the end where the daughter is told by her lawyer that she's on the verge of being arrested as an accomplice to manslaughter and sweetly asks mommy if she can have a day to think about turning her loser boyfriend in. Mommy who shouldn't be raising dust mites at this point goes along with it. Even though one of the employees was shot & killed by the robbers! Easily one of the worse movies I've ever seen. Props to the supporting actors who were more than adequate in their roles. The two police officers had really awful cop banter though. Another problem was the actresses playing the mother & female police officer looked too much alike. (Grant & Catherine Mary Stewart) While the daughter & her friend at one point looked too much alike thereby making the scene by the river confusing when they talked. (Nina Dobrev & Meaghan Rath) It was hard to concentrate on who was who in the scene. Both had so much hair billowing around their faces by the wind!
*I read 2 other posts about this film. While 1 poster basically called it the way I did another said the characters where supposed to be that way. I disagree. The actress playing the daughter never showed enough emotion for what she was going through. It was as it she was on sleep medication. Meanwhile Grant's character was practically in a stupor the entire film.
Just for the record, I'm not a Dude, I'm a Dudette!