Hello I Must Be Going

Todd Louiso's "Hello I Must Be Going" stars Melanie Lynskey as Amy, a young woman who moves in with her wealthy parents after a bitter divorce. During "Going's" first act, Louiso indulges in light satire. Amy's wealthy parents are mocked for being vapid, a more liberal family are mocked for being airheads and a son fakes being gay in order to flatter his progressive, ultra-tolerant parents. The film then turns into a little Girl Power screed. Here Amy learns to sympathise with her mother, who's been neglected by Amy's oft absent father. Amy also has an affair with a nineteen year old guy (Christopher Abbott), and kicks away her ex-husband, an adulterous man whom Amy delights in milking for a divorce settlement. At first glance the film thus seems to be indulging in a little reverse-sexism, but Louiso has other intentions. Amy's dad is ultimately a nice guy and Abbott's character ultimately teaches Amy to love herself. Ever since "The Graduate" (1967) and "Harold and Maude" (1971), the older woman-younger man paradigm has been fairly mainstream. "Hello I Must Be Going", though, seems to offer the reverse of the countless indie films released annually in which a young, pixie faced woman exists only to "heal" the wounds of a depressed older man. And so here Amy self-identifies as a loser, incapable of being loved, an "ailment" which an incredulous fling promptly cures; nothing like being adored by a teenager, apparently, to kick-start your libido. 6/10 – Worth one viewing.

(2012) Hello, I Must Be Going DRAMA Not bad movie, but was only credible up until a certain point, which was until the female main star who's middle age, begin to have one of many affairs with a 19 year old young man. The movie stars, Amy (Melanie Lynskey) who still can't get over a recent divorce from her husband of many years. And she shows this by staying with her parents house without taking a single step outside- similar to how a hermit would live. While hanging around there, her mother (Blyth Danner) then informs her, that as a result her husband trying to get some clients, both of them can go on to their pre-planned world wide vacation, except that they're expected to have dinner with the main boss. Upon bringing his own family to this dinner also includes his 19 year old actor son, Jeremy (Christopher Abbott). It's like Jeremy doesn't seem to have any other friends neither from high school or from college, no mentioning of any goals, including the fact that it would take an affair with a 19 year old to help a middle age woman identify herself is something one can see from a soap opera. Except that it's more credible on a soap opera than it would be for a two hour movie as it would require a time spawn of several months if not years for anything like that to happen in real life.

This movie is an important piece about a woman's delayed awakening. Surrounded by a dysfunctional family and a traumatic divorce, she is able to find strength through unconditional love. Although different in many ways, this movie reminded me of 'you can count on me' - if you enjoyed that film, you will likely enjoy this one. It is more light-hearted, but just as real and complex. I think it is an important movie. I would strongly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys independent films touching on the subject of complex family relationships or personal growth. The script is very well written, the acting is superb, and the movie rings true to life in the setting depicted. I found it completely believable and an accurate depiction of a real life scenario.

A story that's been done to death a million times, but could have worked with better and more original writing and dialogue. Melanie was captivating and adorable as always, but the writing in this script gave her no room to bloom to her full potential. Mainly it was just predictable, generic drivel with some decent cinematography once the action moved to the city streets and not in homes. The scenes with, well practically everyone, were almost clumsy beyond bearing. The scenarios just rang hollow and false throughout. But enen with all that it still could have managed to be enjoyable, but the character of Blythe Danner was so incredibly overplayed and annoying it bordered on detestable. She's never a subtle actress or even a very good one, but in this role her appearances just disrupt any flow or continuity the movie otherwise might've had. I'm not saying there's no humorous or poignant moments here, but it's just too full of cliches and ham fisted acting performances by the supporting cast that overall I found it ridiculous. People just do not behave this way.

I've liked the New Zealand actress Melanie Lynskey's work ever since her first movie when she was 15 years old. That film was the dark "Heavenly Creatures", which I believe was Kate Winslet's first film as well, with Peter Jackson directing. I had a rather hard time assessing "Hello I Must Be Going". I finally concluded that there were too many clichés and contrivances and that the film in its' entirety never really clicked with me. Lynskey plays Amy who is quite depressed about her pending divorce and, although I believe it's only mentioned once in the movie, a miscarriage. She's living with her parents, portrayed by Blythe Danner and John Rubinstein, and has hardly left the house in three months. An important business client, to her father, comes to dinner at their home along with his wife and son. The son, Jeremy (portrayed by Christoper Abbott), and Lynskey are very attracted to each other and begin a torrid affair. The film presents Abbott as 19 years which is one of the key points of the relationship. In fact, Abbott is 28 years old now and Lynskey 35 years old which is not that great a difference as the film would like to portray. Most of the characters seem to be nearly always talking in circles and evasively and rarely saying what they really mean, which I found rather annoying after awhile. Also, they seemed to be speaking their lines without really any emotion, and with deadpan expressions, so it wasn't registering emotionally for me. Even the musical soundtrack I felt was annoying. It's certainly not the worst movie I've ever seen. The ending I thought was appropriate. However, overall I could never reach a point where I cared all that much about what would happen,

Hello I Must Be Going doesn't really question the morality or credibility of its central theme -- romantic relationship between a woman and a man where she is almost a couple of decades older. The film cleverly escapes the creepiness surrounding it and actually ends up being very funny. It should be attributed to screenwriter Sarah Koskoff's unabashed celebration of the positive effects that sexual human contacts have on one's spirit, and female lead Melanie Lynskey's depressed yet oddly optimistic portrayal of the 30-something divorcée. For a Sundance Lab product, which often tends to be just dark and ambiguous, this is somewhat a refreshing change of tone. The only indie cliché this film resorts to is the background of its main characters, who are all connected to filmmaking. However, this convenient setting on the filmmakers' part is not a real problem with the film, as there is a tangible character development of a woman slowly reopening to her senses, which should easily resonate among general audiences. All in all, this is an easy-to-follow indie with no ambiguity that makes your head spin. It clearly has adult contents with a few f-bombs, but nothing too graphic, and offers a pretty relaxed and enjoyable narrative.

Good movie!

source: Hello I Must Be Going

Is this movie a love story, comedy, tragedy? Is there an answer the the questions raised by this movie? Yes and No or is there a maybe answer to these questions raised by this interesting little story. What I see in this movie "story" is people sleep walking through life as we all tend to do most of the time. Then there is Amy who is really alive, living in the moment. Amy is not thinking about the trip around the world or retirement or making money, in the pain that she feels at the loss of love she is more alive than all the other characters. Loosing a love is a "near death" experience, because when it is your time to go "die" you must separate (loose) all your loved ones who must stay behind and carry on in life. So here you have Amy in her misery morning the death of a part of her (and although maybe not consciously) she is more alive than all the other people in the story. The possible exception is Jeremy (the young man "actor") he being an artist. Artist are always more alive, less sleep walking, than the rest of us. Jeremy the artist sees Amy through different eyes, and he see's Amy's passion (all be it in the grief of her loss) and all of a sudden two people who are not sleep waking meet. Both, Amy and Jeremy, finding each other alive and vibrant (all be it for different reasons) they see an opportunity to be with another real, attractive (not sleep walking) person and find and share in the most valuable richness in this world love. As the story progresses from Amy's perspective "mostly" you see that she is just as alive in the warmth of the sunshine of love as she was in the misery of the cold darkness of her morning for the loss of love. The story ends by both of them begrudgingly going back the what is acceptable (by society's standards) which is finding or trying to find some one who is right??? for you, correct age, class, race, religion culture etc. etc.. But somehow knowing and being grateful for their brief summer of love where the shared a waking moment in time. A man and a woman sharing a moment in time in the splendor of love. Oh and yes by the way told as some what of a comedy, because some times big truths can more easily be told in comedy.

This movie is great, very relaxing. It shows lovely meaningful story of two people and their families, love and simplicity. The simple things, the simplest pleasures of life like enjoying each other company, spending time talking endlessly, empathy, understanding, love, finding our way, fulfillment - the best things in life are for free. And indeed they are. It is good to be reminded about it. Allowing ourselves to stand up, make different decisions and start doing whats truly makes us happy is sometimes hard. But once we understand ourselves and go for what we love ... the ending must be much better then what we created up to now. I did very much enjoy this movie. Actors play is exquisite and frankly I am watching it on repeat now and its still great each time. I would love to see part two of it :)