Friends come and go, but family is forever. That was the adage about family up until the time people began to relook at the concept family and its significance. Indeed, there is an increasing acceptance of the idea of a family that is not biological and this is becoming depicted on screen in different ways. There are more serious such as Jesse Eisenberg’s Manodrome released earlier this year, and now on the other, more humorous, well graphically titled movie Chosen Family, a labor of love for Heather Graham (both writing, directing and acting in the film).
The last time we spoke to Graham, she was in a Western film in which she is a mother defending her daughter (in the film Place of Bones). This time around, we see her character Ann attempting but failing to relate with some man’s daughter; giving Chosen Family a rather uneasily comical conclusion that will traumatize some millennials and Gen X’ers about what they may have had to endure in family situations. That’s the beauty of films, baby!
The screenplay is rather lovely and Graham has constructed it in a way that, in its decent supporting cast, there are some reliable and enjoyable appearance of people especially Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!) who plays Ann’s friend max. There are also friends of Ann, Frances (Odessa Rae), and Roz (Andrea Savage) who form a plan to find Ann a husband after a series of unsuccessful dates and relationships for Ann. Of all the things, it is one thing when someone is a professional and practices yoga on a daily basis and is unable to find inner peace. However, in the case of Ann, being surrounded by her eccentric-wannabe-singer mother Dorothy (Julie Halston) never helps because it just keeps her on her toes in the most unhelpful of ways at all times.
Ann needs to know where to draw the line (don’t we all?) while also doing what every parental figure ought to do – monitoring her drug-user wannabe sister Clio (Julia Stiles) who is always on the edge of returning to her drug abusing ways. Ouch. Now, Graham spends most of the movie as Ann, which is perfectly alright with me, but the parts where she stands up to Clio has got to be one of the best parts of this very short 87 minute film.
Julia Stiles should bring a millennial Hebrew her followers will understand as well as regret hearing the name would probably transport them twenty-five years back into Stiles’ no-BS self in the timeless comedy 10 Things I Hate About You (Heath Ledger Unfortunately). Chosen Family, Stiles latest comedy, let you cover what army of molds she types and fills, and her similar army begs for more of one of these ‘her sister’ (and Thomas Lennon’s) characters caches she fine.
All these years later, Stiles and Graham do not seem to have aged, and they only improved as actors over the years, thus knowing how Graham portrays a single yoga instructor in her latest feature may drive crazy a specific part of the population. Closer said, however, that fact deepens the envating. Male performers like Simon Bonds bod san for Mayhem often work shirtless, there are innumerable occasions when Graham practically takes a bikini off just to relative vlog updates targeting her characters kids website. It’s her drive to see Chosen Family become a reality, however, that will make you love her for the second time, and the most.
Eventually the nice Irene Wilson is paired up with divorced dad Steve (Fuller House alum John Brotherton), who somehow manages to be the only straight man in Fuller House. Why would anyone possibly want to divorce this handsome man, right away the audience begs the question – why would anyone want to? Do not tell me he was the one dumped, or perhaps it’s the child he has with his ex-wife who had quite possibly and indirectly over the years caused much psychological damage. No, it’s ugly to lash out at the children – but have you met the seven year old Lilly?
Played by a disgraced Chosen Family actress Ella Grace Helton, she is something else to say the least, and once she walks into the rest of the movie with those little black eyes of destruction, well, let us just say that she seems to eat the film. On the In Chosen Family, I can even outline up to the whole essay as to the difficulties of a child character for an adult to understand, her role in the story, and I can describe the symptoms of the disorder quite vividly. She attempts to ruin her father’s relationship with any woman who gets close to him, irrationalising his need for any female in his life. She begins to humiliate poor Steve in front of his new warm family of Ann and other ladies about his debt status and his previous wife’s battle using Lilly as a weapon in the court with Steve. You will hate the parts where the aforementioned sequences are focused on and you will do so through throttled and shielding sights.
Of course, they can always say “she’s a child, after all,” but believe me, there’s some argument and at some point, you will have to sit down. This is a dreadful annoying personality who talks without thinking about how her words will be interpreted by other people and constantly is in the mood “Ask me if I give a f*ck.” Fortunately for Ann, her friends intervene before the chaos takes over Stern, but Graham, Stiles and Lennon have enough spark for the both of them.
In tracts of A-story, and vice versa structure nothing but A-section, such a charming ending in the matters of both filling in the was last hurriedly completed, smashed on Graham’s part. So you go girl! For such a little tight knit production this can be quite funny at times and does enough to prick the social consciousness about the relevance of limits in this 21st century.
Watch Free Movies on Hurawatch