Watching this film is like listening to Adele sing the Happy Birthday Song. It's the most beautiful version of something you've seen a billion times before. James Gandolfini, Kristin Stewart and Melissa Leo exquisitely perform a story that doesn't have a single original or unexpected moment from its opening scene to the closing credits. The direction of Jake Scott is a little manufactured at times but never gets in the way, letting you enjoy two modern masters and a young woman who is sure as hell a lot more than "that girl in the sparkly vampire movies".
Doug and Lois Riley (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo) are a 50something married couple in Indianapolis who are on the precipice of personal disaster. Doug is sleeping with a waffle house waitress and Lois is frozen in place, unable to even leave her home. They've never recovered from the death of their teenage daughter. Then Doug travels to New Orleans for a business convention and meets Mallory (Kristin Stewart), a teenager stripper/hooker who's trapped in a world of squalor and misery that she can't even imagine escaping. Doug is drawn into that world, selling his business and abandoning Lois to try and pull Mallory out of the gutter. The shock of Doug's decision is enough to force Lois out of stasis and she drives down to The Big Easy, only to fall in love with Mallory as well. But a 15 year old girl who's seen and lived the worst of the streets can't be fixed that easily.
Now, there's not one surprising scene or line of dialog in Welcome to the Rileys and the concept of a woman so wounded by the loss of a child that she can't step outside her front door is treated a bit too comedically. That's about all I can find wrong with this motion picture and it fades to insignificance compared to all that's right with it.
The three leads here are as close to perfect as any actor can get. If there's anything lacking in these roles, it's entirely due to how they're written and not at all how they're performed. Stewart is absolutely dead on in her portrayal of a girl who doesn't know the right way to live and bristles at anyone who tries to teach her. Gandolfini's stoicism and determination flows through a man who thinks he's found purpose again. Leo's portrayal of the most damaged person in the story transforming into the strongest is effortlessly believable. And while Ken Hixon's script does nothing new, he handles the integration of Lois into Doug and Mallory's world with great intelligence. Lois is a sharp and fast disruption to that relationship but Hixon makes you see that such a disruption was needed to let both Doug and Mallory move on to a healthier place in their lives. Director Scott also deserves credit for sustaining a consistency of emotion and behavior instead of jerking the characters in whatever direction the story moves.
Gandolfini and Leo have already made their bones in the acting world but with Welcome to the Rileys and The Yellow Handkerchief, Stewart has laid claim to being THE actress to watch in her generation. I hope she can fulfill that promise and I hope I can see a lot more films as good as this one.
Doug and Lois Riley (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo) are a 50something married couple in Indianapolis who are on the precipice of personal disaster. Doug is sleeping with a waffle house waitress and Lois is frozen in place, unable to even leave her home. They've never recovered from the death of their teenage daughter. Then Doug travels to New Orleans for a business convention and meets Mallory (Kristin Stewart), a teenager stripper/hooker who's trapped in a world of squalor and misery that she can't even imagine escaping. Doug is drawn into that world, selling his business and abandoning Lois to try and pull Mallory out of the gutter. The shock of Doug's decision is enough to force Lois out of stasis and she drives down to The Big Easy, only to fall in love with Mallory as well. But a 15 year old girl who's seen and lived the worst of the streets can't be fixed that easily.
Now, there's not one surprising scene or line of dialog in Welcome to the Rileys and the concept of a woman so wounded by the loss of a child that she can't step outside her front door is treated a bit too comedically. That's about all I can find wrong with this motion picture and it fades to insignificance compared to all that's right with it.
The three leads here are as close to perfect as any actor can get. If there's anything lacking in these roles, it's entirely due to how they're written and not at all how they're performed. Stewart is absolutely dead on in her portrayal of a girl who doesn't know the right way to live and bristles at anyone who tries to teach her. Gandolfini's stoicism and determination flows through a man who thinks he's found purpose again. Leo's portrayal of the most damaged person in the story transforming into the strongest is effortlessly believable. And while Ken Hixon's script does nothing new, he handles the integration of Lois into Doug and Mallory's world with great intelligence. Lois is a sharp and fast disruption to that relationship but Hixon makes you see that such a disruption was needed to let both Doug and Mallory move on to a healthier place in their lives. Director Scott also deserves credit for sustaining a consistency of emotion and behavior instead of jerking the characters in whatever direction the story moves.
Gandolfini and Leo have already made their bones in the acting world but with Welcome to the Rileys and The Yellow Handkerchief, Stewart has laid claim to being THE actress to watch in her generation. I hope she can fulfill that promise and I hope I can see a lot more films as good as this one.