Film review: Stuck in Love (15)

A father who’s a writer. A son and daughter who are wannabes. A family in freefall after mum left dad for another man. Daughter hates mum, dad carries a blazing torch for his lost love.
By Tony Earnshaw
Published 14th Jun 2013, 10:51 BST

Shy son meets the girl of his dreams but can’t divulge his feelings.

It looks ropey on paper but Stuck in Love manages to avoid being just another formula flick due to the playing of its four principals. Greg Kinnear is the novelist who hasn’t written a word since wife Jennifer Connelly walked out. Precocious daughter Lily Collins knocks out a novel aged 19. Son Logan Lerman feels pressured to be as good as dad once was. Estranged wife Connelly vacillates between new life, old life and the pain of being frozen out by her daughter.

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The message of Stuck in Love – if you hadn’t already figured it out – is communication or the lack of it in the family unit. And this is a really dysfunctional family, albeit one based firmly in the mores of middle-class America.

This tale of people struggling through life lacks the hard edge of blue-collar existence yet manages to dabble in substance abuse, stalking (Kinnear spies on his ex), casual sex (Kinnear enjoys no-strings romps with a married neighbour) and promiscuity.

Debut writer/director Josh Boone’s script is hopelessly simplistic and borderline juvenile in its desire to offer the hope of a better future. His characters are flawed but not irredeemable and they’re easy to root for in a movie that combines a coming-of-age drama with the travails of experience and growing up – no matter what age you are.