I watched this last night. I agree with Haynes that it's not camp, and nor do I think it's a comedy, even a black one. I realize the studio chose to submit it in that category, but I feel that's more due to the studio having a basic discomfort with the material, leading to an attempt to sort of handwave it away as a comedy. None of the interviews I've read with the director or the leads have talked at all about comedic aspects. Let's remember who generally runs the studios: The sort of guys who thought Vili was lucky.
A brief joke about hot dogs that occurred five minutes into the movie and the amusement of Elizabeth's pretensions being exposed at the end isn't enough to make this movie not a drama to me.
Speaking of Elizabeth's pretensions, I liked the way the ending was foreshadowed earlier in the way she carried around that stupid notepad and insisted on writing down the precise brands of Gracie's makeup ensemble. Oh, and of course, what we were told about her filmography up to now, and the fact that this is a "TV movie." If it were prestige, it'd be referenced as being HBO, or even Netflix (ha).
I too was very impressed by Melton. The way he embodied a 13-year-old at times, and at other times a middle-aged man, was remarkable. Only in his last scene, watching his kids' graduation, did he finally seem like the 36-year-old he's supposed to be. I really felt for Joe in this, because not only do we have the ongoing violation that Grace commits against him, we have this new violation that Elizabeth commits against him. It's really sad when the most appropriate "romantic" relationship he's had is the texting one with his friend in the monarch butterflies group, the woman who called a halt to things once he crossed a line and was like "aren't you married?".
The last scene between Gracie and Elizabeth was everything. I think Gracie probably wasn't molested by her brothers, but nor do I think she's quite as secure as she claims. She took off one mask only to reveal another mask. It's masks all the way down. And that's the problem for Elizabeth, because not only did she realize she didn't have Gracie figured out, she still doesn't have Gracie figured out, and she's never going to have Gracie figured out. Portman did such a fantastic job with the insecurity after Gracie sauntered off.
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