Heartwarming and acidic in turns, this offbeat dramedy about two meter maids in love features solid performances from Samantha Morton and Jason Patric.
Heartwarming and acidic in turns, this offbeat dramedy about two meter maids in love features solid performances from Samantha Morton and Jason Patric.
A sheltered meter maid and her disturbed fellow parking enforcer discover that love can bloom even while working in a job that most folks despise in this unflinching look at modern love starring Samantha Morton and Jason Patric. Hypersensitive Claire (Morton) spends her days doling out parking tickets, and her nights caring for her ailing mother (Teri Garr). Jay (Patric) is a highly intelligent parking enforcement officer whose bitterness over squandered opportunities has grown to border on
sociopathic. When this unlikely pair first begins to realize they may be headed for something more than friendship, guarded Claire tenuously dips her toes in to test the water as emotionally stunted Jay dives in headfirst. While Claire and Jay both possess a paralyzing fear of commitment, it's the hopelessly disparate way that both set about dealing with their mutual discomfort that shows just how excruciating love can truly be under the wrong circumstances. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
The funny, sad, offbeat, sometimes off-the-beat romance Expired is one of those precariously balanced movies that might fall to pieces with a different cast.
Morton is one of those tingly actresses whose skin barely covers her soul, and to watch her search for tender mercies in a crazy-hostile world is a gift. The film is appallingly good.
An occasionally cringe-inducing mix of pathos and humor, the tightly scripted and well-acted tale follows a lonely, vulnerable meter maid who falls into a comically horrific relationship with a colleague incapable of emotional intimacy.
How likely is it that love, not to mention hot sex, can blossom between two people who've picked identical careers dedicated to punishing the rest of us? Delightfully kinky sex and the city meter maid romp.
Death and regret hang over the film palpably, and Miniucchi's willingness to put her characters through disaster and humiliation while still plainly empathizing with them is what keeps the film surprising and its characters winning, in spite of themselves
Unconventionally quirky in its unassuming blue-collar bluntness, Expired is comically horrifying in its examination of lonely people living on the fringe of professional obscurity and personalized disarray.
Expired pretends to be a valentine to society's outcasts, but it's just one more indie comedy that mocks its characters while sucking up to its knowing audience.
Miniucchi's screenplay is an unwieldy blend of pathos and unsettling moments, which become increasingly uninteresting as the film trudges to a dreary close.
The temptation is to say Expired is closer to "Misfired," but there are just enough good things here (particularly Samantha Morton as a lonely-in-love meter maid) to avoid that label.
Locating both Claire's loneliness and Jay's anger as partial outgrowths of their detested profession handing out parking meter violation tickets, Expired coasts along on a distinctively odd wavelength.
Assuming the shape of an old-fashioned indie, this offbeat romantic fable is a minor work that promises better things from its director; the narrative is considerably elevated by lead performers Jason Patric and the endlessly creative Samantha Morton.
How likely is it that love, not to mention hot sex, can blossom between two people who've picked identical careers dedicated to punishing the rest of us? Delightfully kinky sex and the city meter maid romp.
In "Expired," Claire(Samantha Morton) takes care of her invalid mother(Teri Garr) while working as a meter maid. That job has its share of dangers like arguments with drivers, awkward encounters with ex-boyfriends and being hit by cars. After recuperating from one such accident, she meets Jay(Jason Patric), a
co-worker who takes a much more agressive stance towards the job. That does not stop him from having his own awkward encounter with his estranged son(Jonny Mack) who is about to have his CD released and whom he tickets, anyway. But then they will let anybody on MTV these days.
Samantha Morton proved years ago that she can personally elevate any movie she is in, especially the mostly abominable "Minority Report." And that's also true with the otherwise unremarkable "Expired," that feels a little incomplete, to which she excels against the one-note performance of Jason Patric. In a switch, Claire is nowhere near as lonely as she might seem while Jay relies on phone sex and pornography for most of his interpersonal relations. That having been said, the movie's message is being kind can make the world a better place. Don't get me wrong. It's a worthy thought but strange coming from a movie about characters doling out parking tickets.(Apparently, you only get ticketed when you are about to return to your car.) As much as not ticketing somebody may be considered a good deed, remember that the money collected does go to the public good.
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