An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a nice cast involved and since it seemed to have a decent reputation, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was surprised by how little I actually cared about the damned thing after all. I mean, sure, there was indeed a decent cast but the story was just terribly generic and predictable. Seriously, they basically mixed ‘Doc Hollywood’ with the tale of a man going back to his hometown 20 years later (somehow, I couldn’t find a good example of another movie with a similar plot which shows how actually bland this concept is). At least, ‘Doc Hollywood’ was a sweet flick which didn’t take itself so seriously. Eventually, the only real neat thing with this movie was to see Robert Downey Jr. finally playing something else than Tony Star for the MCU. Indeed, even if it really gave a huge push to his career, it also completely sidetracked him. Anyway, in spite of the rather tepid material, Downey was still pretty good though and, without him, the whole thing would have been a real chore to watch. I have to admit that Robert Duvall was actually not bad at all either, even if his nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role was probably exaggerated. However, the rest of the cast (Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Dax Shepard, Leighton Meester) was just completely wasted with some poorly developed characters and some half-baked sub-plots. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, the damned thing was still rather harmless and I guess it is still worth a look if only to see Robert Downey Jr. shining in something else than a super-hero robotic suit.