Nothing extraordinary happens, and [director] Aradjis relies on Wood and Donowho to carry the slight thread of a film.
Comment
05/16/08
The Favor (2008)
39 %
Reviews Counted: 18 Fresh: 7 Rotten:11 Average Rating: 5.3/10
Rated: Not Rated
Theatrical Release: May 2, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: After reuniting with his childhood sweetheart, Lawrence (Frank Wood) suffers a tragedy when she dies in an accident. In order to prevent her teenage son (Ryan Donowho) from going into foster care, Lawrence becomes his guardian. But caring for the troubled boy may turn out to be more than... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Frank Wood, Ryan Donowho, Isidra Vega, Paige Turco
Reviews
1 - 18 (sorted by date)
It is a flawed but intriguing film that promises better things to come from its filmmaker.
05/16/08
Top Critic
While people looking to get away from the big explosions and broad comedy that accompany most summer movies will appreciate the effort, this seems like the kind of thing you should be getting for free on TV.
05/09/08
Top Critic
The Favor is that rare film that at every turn exhibits good taste and a sense of restraint.
05/05/08
Top Critic
A dreary, interminable drama written and directed by Eva Aridjis, is exactly one-third of a good movie.
05/02/08
Top Critic
Yet another small, "sensitive" character study of unassuming "little" folk trying their best under trying circumstances, all amounting to the purest banality.
05/02/08
The Favor ultimately takes itself too seriously and ends up stranded in an unconvincing no man’s land of cute bleakness.
05/01/08
Forgive me if I've already forgotten what The Favor is really about, but the truth is so does Miss Aridjis. So drastically in fact, that the film doesn't even qualify for After School Special exemption status.
05/01/08
Writer-director Eva Aridjis has a flat style that’s frankly numbing; Wood tries valiantly, but he and Donowho are both dragged down by the script.
04/30/08
As an unconscious parody of everything that's wrong with Indiewood, Eva Aridjis's The Favor is brilliant. Otherwise, it's an unwatchable nightmare that brought back bad memories of NYU screenwriting classes.
04/30/08
Top Critic
Doesn't ever end up communicating anything other than its own capacity for sensitive understatement.
04/25/08
This accomplished and economical debut feature (2006) is refreshingly free of gimmicks, focusing squarely on the hero's awkward attempts to forge a relationship with the petulant teenager.
04/11/08
Top Critic
The Favor measures the costs of crushing disappointment and the strength of love, and though those themes are the stuff of soap opera, writer/director Eva Aridjis recruited just the right cast to keep the suds at bay.
04/10/08
Top Critic
It's an emotionally satisfying film, even a cathartic one, that deserves an audience.
06/23/06
Eva Aridjis invests her first fiction feature with rewarding depths of humor and feeling that go a long way toward redeeming the occasional tonal awkwardness or overstated emotion.
06/13/06
Top Critic1 - 18 (sorted by date)
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