Endings, Beginnings review – seriously middling | The Guardian

Shailene Woodley is caught between two smouldering, bearded stools in an earnest drama that lacks storytelling nousThere’s a lot going on in Drake Doremus’s flawed, serious-minded movie about relationships and personal growth – more going on, in fact, that can be successfully expressed in the running time. But this is a decently intended film from a director whose 2011 drama Like Crazy I liked very much.Daph (Shailene Woodley) is, in the words of the song, torn between two lovers. Coming off a traumatic breakup, she has quit her job and left her apartment in LA and returned to live, mortifyingly, in the pool-house belonging to her married sister Billie (Lindsay Sloane) and quite close to her demanding mother Sue (Wendie Malick). But at a party Daph meets two unfeasibly handsome guys who are best friends and totally into her: soulful intellectual Jack (Jamie Dornan) and moody bad boy Frank (Sebastian Stan). Continue reading…

Shailene Woodley is caught between two smouldering, bearded stools in an earnest drama that lacks storytelling nous

There’s a lot going on in Drake Doremus’s flawed, serious-minded movie about relationships and personal growth – more going on, in fact, that can be successfully expressed in the running time. But this is a decently intended film from a director whose 2011 drama Like Crazy I liked very much.

Daph (Shailene Woodley) is, in the words of the song, torn between two lovers. Coming off a traumatic breakup, she has quit her job and left her apartment in LA and returned to live, mortifyingly, in the pool-house belonging to her married sister Billie (Lindsay Sloane) and quite close to her demanding mother Sue (Wendie Malick). But at a party Daph meets two unfeasibly handsome guys who are best friends and totally into her: soulful intellectual Jack (Jamie Dornan) and moody bad boy Frank (Sebastian Stan).

Continue reading…