Downloading Nancy premiered here at Sundance 2008 and is the story of Nancy (played by Maria Bello), a severely emotionally damaged woman married to and emotionally cold man (Rufus Sewell as Albert) who turns to the internet for companions
The film shifts gears drastically when we are at home with the Olmsteads watching them as they watch the broadcast of a 60 Minutes piece which they thought was going to be supportive of Marla's work. Instead its purpose was to raise serious doubts about the authenticity of Marla's paintings. Was she coached by her father? Did she paint them herself? Her father is an amateur artist who paints, which is how Marla came to be interested in doing it herself. Immediately afterwards their world begins to cave in on them as people in town now look at them as frauds and the possibility of lawsuits from previous buyers l
Francine is somewhat mysterious and very intriguing, and through their relationship throws Jason a lifleline and brings him some brief joy. She gives him a feeling of self-worth and validates what a good person he is. Unfortunately she has her own issues that make her damaged goods, and his happiness is short-li
We soon meet the neighbors, a very WASPish family made up of a whitebread wife, obnoxious and rude 10 year old boy and a bigoted Army reservist father/husband Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart, who plays Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight , in a very risky ro
The film opens with our protagonist walking towards a celebratory crowd of people with a gun in his hand, the narrative describing the physical effects of shooting oneself in the mouth. Right there you can be assured that this isn't going to be the „Feel Good Movie of the Year.“ We are informed that we are watching the end of the film, and it immediately cuts a
One scene I could have done without (and to me really seemed like non-sequiter) took place in a gay bar, with a quick shot of two guys trying to swallow each other's tounges. I really didn't need to see that and when thinking about the movie as a whole, I don't really see what the point of that scene was. Really the only reason it seemed to be in there was because it was an indie film and one must show solidar
Jason (our protagonist) is a good guy with a big heart who is a victim of circumstance. Raised by a father with a sadistic streak who left the family some time back, a somewhat clueless mother (seemingly irresponsible, but not in a malicious way) who doesn't seem to have a job and is depending on Jason working two jobs to keep them afloat. Unfortunately Jason's jobs are minimum wage at best and are not enough to meet the monthly bills, including the electricity bill in the middle of winter. His father has just committed suicide, and he leaves Jason a gift which goes unopened for most of the film. We learn that at age three the family learned that his sister had a sever peanut allergy, and that for her 10th birthday (if I recall correctly) dear old dad gave her an intricately wrapped package for her birthday that contained… a jar of peanut butter. That was dads idea of a joke. Therefore Jason's trepidation at opening a parting gift from his father is quite understanda
Some interesting notes: True Grit didn't get a single award despite ten (10!) nominations; Christopher Nolan didn't receive any awards despite Inception being entirely original and praised for its design, winning 4 other awards no less; Anne Hathaway, poking fun at the Academy's attempt at appealing to a younger demographic is the presentation's youngest host ever at 28 and last but not least, 8-time Oscars host Billy Crystal made a friendly and fun appearance making some wish he was back to host ag
In the end the family manages to at least partially gain back the trust of the art world by finally documenting on film themselves Marla creating a painting called „Ocean“ from start to finish. Although that particular painting does share similarities to prior paintings, it actually seems less sophisticated than those that have come before. Since then they have documented another painting straight from the source start to finish called „Rain“, which does seem to be closer to the style of the earlier painti
One night she leaves home, leaving nothing more than a note for Albert stating that she is going to stay with friends in Baltimore. Instead she heads off to meet Louis, and their initial meeting, now in the real world seems awkw
Apparently she is a bit folllicaly overdeveloped and is being teased by the girls at school. Later, when her mother (played by Maria Bello ) discovers that Jasira shaved and that HER boyfriend helped, she becomes outraged and sends Jasira off to live with her father in Texas. Her mother stupidly blames her for being overdeveloped and having breasts at 13 instead of placing the blame on her creepy boyfri
Things continue to spiral out of control and eventually Jasira turns to a concerned pregnant neighbor who takes her in and educates her regarding self-respect, why older guys who want to be „friends“ with 13 year olds should be avoided like the plague, and the definition of r