If you saw the commercials or trailer for screenwriter Richard LaGravenese's directorial debut--he'd previously written everything from The Fisher King to The Bridges of Madison County--you probably came away expecting a movie about glamorous but lonely Holly Hunter gradually falling in love with homely but gracious Danny DeVito. To its credit, LaGravenese's film winds up going somewhere else entirely--somewhere a lot more authentic and considerably less heartwarming. Romance is the movies' lifeblood, and consequently genuinely unrequited passion isn't a very popular subject in Hollywood; that LaGravenese had the courage to make a picture in which the protagonist forges a tentative bond with a nice fella but would still rather sleep with some generic rented hunk or fantasize about charged glances in a lesbian club is fairly remarkable. Living Out Loud isn't much, frankly--it's slight and unfocused, and it coasts for long stretches on the antithetical charisma of its two stars (both of whom are superb). But it's also fundamentally truthful--and for a while, at least, that almost seemed like enough. A strong optional purchase. (M. D'Angelo)
Living Out Loud
(New Line, 103 min., R, avail. Mar. 16, <b>DVD</b>) Vol. 14, Issue 2
Living Out Loud
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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