Not too bad, a few laughs but not many; stereotype characters but that's the usual thing in this kind of comedies; some annoying scenes and the inevitable happy ending. I watched it mainly because it has Jennifer Aniston in it, and it was nice but I was glad I saw it on tv and didn't pay for it.
It starts with a couple living in New York. George (Paul Rudd) loses his job and Linda (Aniston) fails to find one. She doesn't know what to do with her life and is constantly trying out new things, and the last one is a depressing documentary on penguins, a really terrible thing.
They can't afford their apartment anymore so they leave to go to George's brother Rick (Ken Marino) who promised to help. On their way there they stumble into a strange community: they see a naked man on the road and when he moves towards them they crash the car trying to escape too quickly. They are forced to stop and rest at the strange place that those people call Elysium. They meet many strange people there: the naked man, Wayne, wants to be a writer. Carvin (Alan Alda) the old owner of the place; Seth (Justin Theroux) the man everyone sort of looks up to as the leader they don't have, and other hippie men and women. It's a very strange and colorful place, very different from what they are used to, and they feel well there. After they all help with the car, George and Linda resume their journey: unfortunately Rick is an obnoxious, idiot jerk, so George can't stand him and he takes Linda back to Elysium. She doesn't want to stay there, she likes things like doors and privacy, but he insists so she gives him two weeks before deciding if they want to stay or not, but things turn out not the way George imagined. Seth is clearly trying to overpower him and he finds it hard to adjust to their way of life, while Linda seems to have found her place.
Some people want to build a casino on that land and only Linda's intervention in front of cameras slows the proceedings. She jumps in front of them undressing herself, and a topless girl sure gets coverage by the media. She's a hero at Elysium now, and she likes it, and she totally adjusts to their way of life. She's welcomed in the community more easily than George and day after day she thinks she has found herself and feels like one of them. When beautiful Eva asks George to have sex with her, he's troubled and Linda doesn't take well to it either,but after the two weeks she's sure she wants to stay, while he longs to go away. He tries to convince her reminding her of the 'open-love-philosophy' they share, but she wants to belong to the place so much she accepts it and tells him so, then she's vexed to learn that he did not sleep with Eva like she thought while she had slept with Seth. She tells him to do it and get even, and we get the most annoying, unpleasant scene of the movie, when George talks to himself in the mirror trying to prepare himself for the sexual encounter. I don't know what got into them: does anyone seriously find that scene funny? I hate it, just for that I would never buy this movie.
He tries to do it but he's so weird that Eva changes her mind.
Shortly after that he reaches his limit and can't stand the place a minute longer.
The pregnant girl who had her baby in front of him on the porch and now walks around with the ombelical cord still attached because she wants everything to happen naturally, and her man saying that they are planning to eat the placenta, is too much, and also Wayne with his boring book is too much. He tells them all that he thinks , getting it all out.
Linda still wants to stay so he goes away alone, and on foot because a man of the community left his car in the lake.
He goes back to his brother's house where he can witness his sister-in-law's outburst: she wants a divorce because she can't stand her husband and his affairs anymore. George comes back to his senses and realizes what he has done, leaving his wife in that place, and he goes back for her.
Linda stays in the community, but misses her husband.
Seth finds and sells to the casino-men the document that proves that Carvin owns the place, for the money to get a house for him and Linda in a nice place, since he wants to go away with her and doesn't care about the others. When George comes back Seth attacks him because he wants Linda for himself, and nobody tries to separate them because they are all against violence, until Linda sees them and rushes to help George. They make peace and Seth's treachery is revealed. George congratulates Wayne on the new version of his book, which is now brilliant after he accepted the criticism and corrected it somehow, and everyone now has a smile for George.
The movie ends with:
the other owners of Elysium coming with their documents, so Elysium is untouchable now; Linda and George publishing Wayne's book who has a huge success, and finding their way.
Happy ending for everyone!
I didn't like the various nude scenes, and I've said this before so it's not depending on who's the naked person; I believe nude scenes to be useless in movies, put there only to attract attention and get talked about.
The hippie community was weird and full of stereotypes, and none of the characters were developed outside the characteristic that mattered to the comedy and was pertinent to the stereotype.
I found the scene when George is in the bathroom and people come to talk to him too long and excessive. The scene I like the most is in the credits at the end, one of the movie bloopers: when Linda and Seth are exercising in the woods and Theroux accidentally hits Aniston hurting her hand, or her arm, whatever. :-p
It was ok to watch the movie once, but I have no intention of ever watching it again, honestly.
ITA nudi e felici
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