This movie is sort of a hit-and-miss for me. I went into it with high expectations, but in some aspects it disappoints. The storyline could've been a bit stronger, but the acting of Ethan Hawke and Rose Byrne is what carries it all. Towards the end of the film, it sort of falters. Overall, a very watchable film.
In the 80s or 90s this would’ve been a John Cusack movie. Instead it’s an Ethan Hawke movie. It should have been apparent that this was a lesser version of High Fidelity from the opening lines. Ah well, not a bad movie but not good either.
Good movie - won't go down as a classic, but worthy of taking the time to watch. Predictable ending that we're used to seeing in virtually every movie in this genre. 7/10
I am not obsessive about much and certainly not music, I am one of those weird people to whom music has no massive presence in their life. Having said this I did know lads at school that obsessed over groups and brought Japanese print only vinyl for £100 of any group they took a shine to, they went to concerts all over the UK, talked all day about their obsession. So this film seemed very familiar with the opening ten minutes.
Juliet, Naked is light and funny for most of the running time with the three main characters well played by Chris O’Dowd, again, Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke, who I could believe was not stretching himself, I’m sure I’m wrong but I think he lives a bit like Tucker Crowe. O’Dowd, in particular, seems to know exactly what obsessive to the point of unhealthy and dull to be around is through his performance but you have to suppose a lot of actors and especially the females, might well know where that side of ‘fandom’ comes from.
Annie is cautious and bit frightened of her own shadow, she puts up with a lot, it’s me for goodness sake. I felt Rose Byrne got this right too – despite being a lead in the story it is the one part that should not be showy but if anything underplayed, almost wallpaper, I thought the Australian actress got this virtually spot on. If there was one misstep in the characters it was Annie’s lesbian sister that just seemed to be a lesbian and her sister for laughs and nothing else, a bit of frippery.
Throughout the story the hands of Nicky Hornby are all over this. As an author he can write true to life authentic, sympathetic, deeply flawed, ordinary folk, that behave in a realistic manner. Sometimes these characters do not transfer to the silver screen so well, in the case of Juliet Naked the hit rate is much higher than the miss rate.
The location was generic English seaside town, actually Broadstairs in Kent, but like most Hornby creations it is irrelevant, it could be the States or Australia he is digging into people and their foibles. You have to admire his ability to crank out stories that mine the same rich vein but generally do not get too familiar or boring.
Juliet, Naked is fun and enjoyable.
I love it when Ethan Hawke assumes his role as Reality Bites or Before Dawn and, after more than 20 years, it appears in this delicious adaptation of a novel by Nick Hornby. Our path in life continues.
Enjoyable but it won't stick long in the memory. Hawke is worth the price of admission as a faded singer taking refuge in a British seaside town.
An easy watch but nothing new or special. It's charming and fun. Ethan Hawke and Rose Byrne are great together.
As I fan of Ethan Hawke's work in the last few years I was rather excited to see this film. Having seen it.... it was just ok. I can't figure out if it is a glorified Lifetime movie elevated by the presence of Hawke and a good dose of quirkiness or was there more left on the table. At different times it reminded me of Love, Actually and the very underrated Man Up but at no point did it come close to being as good as those two movies.
I have to admit that at first I hated the last scene. After chewing on it overnight I realized that I read too much into what happened (or maybe, what wasn't necessarily going to happen).
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For a romcom Juliet, Naked does a lot of things right. I think the cheating plotline was cheesy but the rest of the movie is surprisingly sincere and pretty fun even the predictable parts. Which is why I felt so disappointed when it ended. It was so good I wanted more of it. Which I think it rather good. It might be seen as a negative towards pacing but honestly I just wanted another half hour of the movie before the coda. Everything was getting good and then suddenly there was a shift that always happens in bad romance films that meander and don't know how to transition. The actual coda itself I also wasn't a fan of. The exposition via letter/voice over. It sorta reeks of that telling rather than showing which is a shame because it the movie before that really didn't suffer from that even during the letter writing segments.
I can't say it's a satisfying movie but it's one enjoyed.
Shout by SandraBlockedParent2019-05-25T19:57:24Z
It was OK, but somehow it feels that something was missing. Happy ending was suggested but I would rather had seen couple of scenes of that..