I think this movie was absolutely brilliant. The kids were so adorable and funny. Though the father was how he was in regards to male female it showed him as a totally dedicated father, loving his daughters, caring for his sons and he showed so much heart and love toward everyone including his wife. I love how he tended to the children. I love how he took time with them one by one. I love how he catered to his wife and their time together. Yes, he was a man that believed a woman's place is in the kitchen. Now, I am a 47-year-old female that was not offended by that part of him. I understood it to be who he was in the story and who he was in his daughter's life. It was not a deal breaker by any means. I found his love for his children and his love for his wife to be the key elements of who he was. We all have areas in our lives for different beliefs that may be flawed but it shouldn't be a deal breaker just something that prayerfully someone will come along and shed enough light on that we can see those things differently and change our opinion to a better one. So I judge him not on that. The whole of him was love. The whole of him was compassion. The whole of him was faithful. And that, to me, measured more in him being a man. I love how he would reprimand his sons adequately with the punishment always fitting the crime. Not too extreme and not too light. Which equals just right. The only thing about the movie that I didn't like was the fact that there were too many loose strings. For instance, I wanted to know what was the reason the mother cried and ran out the house and was hitting the dad in the chest? It would have been very nice for the daughter to have asked the mother in her older years and had got the answer. I also would have loved to understood and have seen the other eight children in relation to the parents in those last stages. It seemed that Elizabeth stayed close and lived next door to the mother but I would have loved to know what the other children were like with their parents as they grew up. Just seeing them at the end of the movie didn't feel complete to me and it seemed rather awkward...especially when the daughters were leaving the house and the mother just touched their arm and they left out after the funeral. Very awkward. I also would have loved if they would have taken that last scene and when they showed a close-up of the kids now all grown up I truly wish they had placed a picture of their young self next to them at each close up so we could know who was who. That would have been key for me since we had developed a relationship, if you will, with the kids throughout the movie. But that all being said. Excellent film! The acting was not stellar but I wasn't looking for it to be. I'm not too particular as long as the film is wonderful. If the story is wonderful then I can accept the children not being on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A good movie is a good movie. I know some movies with people whose names ARE on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and I was bored out of my mind. But this was a really good watch from first scene to last. Loved it. And as far as no people of color, I too am a woman of color and none of that bothered me. A good movie is a good movie and this was a good movie.
Review of The Measure of a Man
