While We're Young (2015)

As it began, I really identified with how Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts feel isolated or disconnected from their friends as they move into parenthood and that chapter of their lives. They've chosen to focus on their careers and not have kids, and it seems that their friends resent that they haven't grown up.

When they meet a young couple (played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried), they are captivated by their energy. They form a friendship and it helps them recapture their zest for life. You could tell they were in a rut and happy to get out of it. The younger couple is impressed by what the older couple has accomplished. It's a mutual admiration society. To their older friends, they look like hipster dinks.

This is all fun to watch for about two-thirds of the film, then it decides to shoehorn a plot that just didn't do anything for the experience. It was almost confusing trying to follow what was going on. This didn't need a weird conspiracy angle thrown in.

Adam Driver is great though. He's perfect for films like this. I'm really curious to see how he's going to play as a villain in The Force Awakens though. It might be a real inspired casting choice. Anyway, it's also nice to see Amanda Seyfried in something good. I can't think of too many films she's been in that I've enjoyed. I don't know what it is about Ben Stiller that he always seems to play a character that you end up having no sympathy for. I don't know if it's the roles he chooses, or the way he chooses to play them. Maybe he's just one of those people that come off as unlikable.

Overall, I still thought it was a fun date-type movie. I just wish the third act had been a little stronger. Worth a rental.

3 (out of) 5 Death Stars