Lucky Them - A Movie Review

This project is going to make the best story anybody’s ever read.

Lucky Them is a 2013 film. Ellie is an enthusiastic rock journalist. Her boss gives her a new assignment to rediscover a musician who has disappeared from the limelight. This certain musician was Ellie’s former lover. Ellie makes connections to track Matthew Smith for the story.

We have all had movies start in promising directions until diminishing into nonsensical stories that make no sense. Lucky Them is one of those. I preferred this film about music journalists instead of a romance with zero chemistry.

Toni Collette is my favorite actress and I’ll watch anything with her. Get ready for this - I detested her character in Lucky Them! Collette’s character doesn’t save the film. Ellie has no direction in life and she’s the reason for her problems. She’s not interested in anything, constantly rolling her eyes at everything!

I’m surprised how many chances her boss (Oliver Platt) gives Ellie, who fails repeatedly to finish assignments. Not to mention, she foolishly pays a random man half of her boss’s seed money! I don’t think Collette even wanted to be in this film because she looked like she was desperately seeking a way out in most scenes.

For whatever reason, writers thought that Ellie and Charlie (Thomas Haden Church) had a more exciting dynamic than Ellie and Lucas (Ryan Eggold). This pair had electric chemistry! The story was alive whenever they interacted and I wanted them to be the main focus. I thought Lucas would change Ellie from her hideous habits and write a life-changing article.

But no, instead Ellie and Charlie meander on this uneventful documentary tour. Charlie is the most boring character! He serves no purpose to the story and everything that came out of his mouth was irreverent. For the life of me, why did Charles join Ellie? Ryan Eggold’s talents are wasted.

Here’s my theory; Lucky Them has two writers' teams. One wanted Ellie and Lucas while the other pined for Ellie and Charles. Just so they could finish the script, they played rock-paper-scissors only for Ellie and Lucas to lose which is a bummer.

Okay, let’s talk about the strangest cast decision in this movie. I won’t give it away in case you watch this film, but as the scene came up, I had no idea if I should take the movie seriously anymore with the casting decision for Matthew Smith.

This film was not finished when Megan Griffiths came on to direct. First, it’s a story about writing a review until it becomes a documentary on how to make one and then nonsensical random romance. The only character who I cared for was Oliver Platt who didn’t deserve Ellie as an employee.

Lucky Them had the potential to be fantastic, especially with how music plays in the background. Music is the central focus. Lately, I have been fascinated with music more which drew me into watching the film. I wanted to learn more about music.

I liked the atmosphere up until the middle half where the film was marketing the importance of music. Filmmakers picked several musical interludes. But then - Lucky Them skips its story about music to be a story about - (Relationships? Finding yourself again?) Honestly, I am not sure. This movie was a waste. Everyone looked bored!

I was disappointed with Lucky Them. This film has the potential to be a memorable story but fails to leave a lasting impression. There are better movies with Collette, so skip Lucky Them and find a movie that understands its plot.