Red Doors (2005)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Excellent, a Must See

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

After viewing this, I was surprised to see on the DVD box that it had won some glowing blurbs and prizes at various festivals.The script was OK, the situations potentially involving. But the unfocused, often amateurish, performances and occasional jarring attempts at comedy repeatedly broke the reality and brought to mind that old maxim, "There are no bad actors, only bad directors." The performances were mainly incoherent, unnatural. Director Georgia Lee seemed unable to help her actors communicate any steady undercurrent of withheld feelings, in a story that was largely about such. Key characters, mostly men, passed across the screen as unknowable entities.I watched Red Doors convinced that most of the leads were capable of much better work, even though I'd only seen one, Tzi Ma, in anything else. Glowingly beautiful Mia Riverton, playing an actress, was hammy and false, killing any chemistry in her romantic scenes.Secondary characters were worse. As the oldest Wong sister, Sam, Jacqueline Kim had the largest part and gave the most coherent, recognizably human performance. But the acting of the men playing her love interests was awful. Her old crush, a whispery-voiced high-school music teacher--an intended dreamboat--was wretchedly portrayed by a kid with suspiciously plucked eyebrows who looked about half her age and didn't sing well.Extra points off for being set in and around New York City, ostensibly, yet establishing no NYC ambiance or locales.So directing movies, it turns out, is like conducting a symphony, or performing rap, or brain surgery--it only takes one bad practitioner to prove that skill makes a difference.

Ed is the patriarch of an Asian-American family, and after retiring from his job, he mopes about the house, periodically making ineffective attempts at suicide, which are depicted in a comedic manner. In between these episodes he watches home movies of his three daughters' childhoods, while his offspring embark on their lives. The oldest girl is planning her wedding to an Ivy League blue-blood, while the middle one is a medical student who becomes attracted to a soap actress researching the role of a doctor. The youngest is a high school student who responds to a schoolmate's romantic overtures by leaving dead rats in his mailbox. After Ed heads off to a Buddhist monastery to confront his issues, the daughters deal with the shallow arcs of their respective narratives . A few quirky ingredients are added to spice up their story-lines, but none amount to anything more than a few moments diversion from the director's wooden attempts to evoke a Zen sensibility with pseudo-minimalist techniques. By the time Ed returns, two of the daughters have hooked up with their prospects, and the third has disposed of her unsuitable suitor. The vibrant Asian-American culture deserves better than this self-consciously coy contribution.

A gentle, thoughtful film. Interestingly quirky characters, although, like the Joy Luck Club or the Soong Sisters or Wing Chun (grin) the male characters are fairly much peripheral to the story either because the actors don't have much to do or couldn't do very much with what they had. But there are plenty of male centered films out there. This is a change of pace.And pace is the right word, this film unfolds gradually, gracefully, and, despite the quirkiness of its characters (a teenager who conducts romance with explosives, e.g.)in a very natural, easy going style.It does not have a Hollywood ending, sad and wistful instead, but satisfying nonetheless.

It was so nice to see a movie that was not the standard crap that so often comes out of Hollywood. This film was very funny and very moving.Coming from a family with 3 daughters and a father who often was left in a daze by the constant chaos around him, I really felt a connection with this movie.The cast was awesome and really delivered great performances. The story was credible, entertaining, and filled with humor at just the right times. This is without a doubt a film I would go to see again in a heart beat.I would definitely recommend it!