AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

monyfitch Sorry I had to. Btw I gave 5 stars to the movie because it wasn't what I expected. Personally I'm not into open relationships or threesome. Also it's really surreal that a mother kiss his son's girlfriend.

howardeisman Meanders along with the main characters speaking softly, sometimes whispering until the louder ending. Everything is low key. I guess this is supposed to be real life naturalistic acting, but the quietness and slowness of things are peculiarly unnatural. What things actually happen, the story devolves into a porn standard plot, written without the sex and with some nudity teases, which makes the whole enterprise rather immature..Life brings about changes, people do things but do not necessarily change. If you can identify with the characters and their lives, you might find it interesting. "Hey. gang!This movie is about us!" If not, it's pretty boring

AZINDN If you were privy to the Laurel Canyon lifestyle in the 60s and 70s, this film is like a retro shock with all the old familiar haunts still there, and the inevitable lost generation of 20 somethings wandering the deer trail lanes of traffic to hang with the musicians. At least, this is how the premise of the 2002 version of the canyon lifestyle is reflected. Between the generation of hippie organic mama (Frances McDormand) and her predictably uptight conservative doctor son (Christian Bale) and his uber egghead grad student girlfriend (Kate Beckinsale) are the silences of a parent who did her thing and a son who didn't. Literally caught between them is the luscious Beckinsale, who comes to enjoy the hedonism the mother's world of music and a young lover (Allessando Nivola) present. She likes the pot, pool parties, and 3-somes while her fiancé dallies with the sublimated lust for a professional colleague (Natasha McElhone) who is more his cup of straight-laced tea. His resentment of mom's ability to be cool and productive clash with his inability to make decisions about his own lifestyle choices, a serious wife-in-training, his medical practice, and the possibility of affairs with other women. He is as much drawn to sin and swinging as Kate. The tension of the six characters makes the story of kids and their parents failure to communicate as old as the perennial hills. Great soundtrack with vocals by Nivola and recording sessions are added plus. McDormand is one of the finest character actors around, and she rises to the challenge of taking back seat to Beckinsale's beauty. Nevertheless, McDormand steals the show every time she is on screen. We don't care about the young couple, we care about the three-way between mother, her lover, and her son's lover...that's Hollywood!

Michael DeZubiria It has taken me years to get around to watching Laurel Canyon, even after having lived in Los Angeles and worked in West Hollywood for a year and a half. There is more about the southern California lifestyle to dislike than can ever be explained in less than 1,000 words, and this movie takes on really just a tiny, tiny part of it, but it paints a picture of show business life clashing with 'normal' life that matches the reality that I experienced there with astonishing accuracy.Of course, a lot of the effect comes from the location shooting. Anyone from Los Angeles will instantly recognize many of the locations, particularly things like the Château Marmont hotel (where, incidentally, Lindsay Lohan lived for months and months in 2006 while she couldn't seem to stop partying enough to find a real apartment) and, more importantly, that charming cafe at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Kirkwood Drive, where I often used to go for coffee.Jim Morisson's house, a few feet away, is sadly overlooked, which is strange since the movie is about the hectic world behind the scenes of the music industry. Christian Bale plays the part of Sam, a young professional, a psychiatrist already tired of his profession and struggling to start a life with his young wife, Alex. Kate Beckinsale is the perfect embodiment of a young bride horrified by the debauchery taking place around her, as she and Sam move into his mother's house to find, to their dismay, that she has not moved out as promised, but is still there recording music with some dirty, stoned musicians. It is truly remarkable how flawlessly Francisc McDormand fits into the role of the aging mother still stuck in a rock star lifestyle. She is truly one of our most versatile actors! While the relationship between Sam and Alex is realistic and convincing enough (especially Sam's dismay at bringing Alex around his mother, and his clearly desperate need not to displease her - note the way he looks at her when he declines his mother's offer of a drink...), but the mother-son relationship is not believable in the slightest.But this, however, is not something that I think the movie is shooting for. This is not a family drama, it's a comparison of different lifestyles, sort of a peek into the craziness of show business life juxtaposed with everyday American society (the educated kind, at least), and how completely different and unmixable they are. Unmixable? Is that a word? Anyway, you get the idea. Water and oil. It's nearly impossible to imagine a smart, well-balanced young man entering his career as a psychiatrist having come from the environment that Jane (McDormand) would have provided him during childhood, but the situational drama that comes from their relationship is revelatory about both lifestyles.The actual neighborhoods and the style of the houses in that part of Hollywood are presented perfectly, thanks in no small part to the location shooting, but it also captures the attitude in many ways as well. I will say that I found the ending to be a bit sudden, but if nothing else, it's one of those movies that makes you think. You may find yourself imagining one lifestyle or the other, and comparing your own thoughts to how the people in the movie were living. It makes you think, and while I found some scenes and situations a little too far of a stretch (Sam's fascination with the darker lifestyle is interesting, but getting involved sexually with her husband's mother? Yeah RIGHT...), it's still an interesting and well-written drama.