A Beginner's Guide to Endings

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source: A Beginner's Guide to Endings

source: A Beginner's Guide to Endings

Guy Ritchie films are usually pacy, character driven & quirky with cartoon violence & a slick soundtrack - which is the style writer / director Jonathon Sobol tried blatantly aping with his 2010 Niagra Falls based debut "A Beginners Guide To Endings". After roguish Harvey Kietel's suicide his three very different oldest sons (Scott Caan, Paolo Costanzo & Jason Jones) learn thru his will (read by uncle JK Simmons) that they too will die soon (due to Kietel putting them in a drug trial yrs earlier) so each goes loopy in his own silly way, before fate weaves their strands back together. It's an unoriginal, implausible & hole-filled pale-imitation, but as an homage to Ritchie... it's passable.

Duke White (Harvey Keitel) decides to end his crazy gambling life by hanging himself. When that fails, he jumps into Niagara Falls. He has 5 sons. He has three sons with Goldie (Wendy Crewson). Then came Juicebox (Jared Keeso) from showgirl Champaigne. There is Todd (Siam Yu) from the Siagon Incident and Goldie finally left him. Nevertheless she remained the boys' mother. In his will, Duke tells the three oldest that they are doom to die from drugs that they took for money along with him. The pharmaceutical company had paid each brother $100k as compensation for their impending death but Duke had lost it all betting on horses. The three brothers are sent into a spiral to find some kind of meaning in it all. Uncle Pal (J.K. Simmons) tries to help each one in his own way. Eddie 'Nuts' White (Jason Jones) is a failed undefeated boxer who wins only because everybody keeps punching him in the junk. Cal (Scott Caan) is a womanizer who wants his teenage love Miranda (Tricia Helfer) back after sleeping with a waitress who also slept with dad. Jacob (Paulo Costanzo) is the responsible one and completely unhappy. He makes a bucket list to do. Jason Jones is so ill-fitting as a boxer. If anybody should be the boxer, it should be Scott Caan. The three guys don't look anything like brothers. They don't fit together and have no brotherly chemistry. Paulo Costanzo and Jason Jones could be brothers but there is no chance for Scott Caan. The movie is so quirky that it makes it hard to follow and lacking in flow. Newcomer Jonathan Sobol is the writer/director. I think he has a lot to say and a lot of style. He just needs to rein it in and control it better. The other problem is that the three brothers go off on their own. It would help with the brotherly chemistry if they face their challenges together. I'm all for quirky comedies. It would help if the family is more together.

"The events leading up to my death were a lot like the rest of my life, things didn't go exactly as planned." Duke White (Keitel) is dead and his three sons are at the will reading. After hearing what they will get they also get another surprise, due to gambling problems their father signed them up for unsafe drug tests when they were babies and because of that they all find out they will die soon. All three sons handle the news differently but eventually they all take one last run at the one thing they have always wanted to do. Based off the preview this is a movie I was looking forward to. I really like these dark comedies and the cast was pretty good. I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie and laughed throughout, but this is another movie where I laughed at things I shouldn't be laughing at. The idea on it's own is pretty morbid but watching it it comes off as more comedy then depressing. There are some really funny lines in this and the running gag about Cal's (Caan) car is great and I loved hearing what they would say about it next. This is a very funny comedy but is not for everyone. Overall, really funny but this is a dark comedy so you must like that style of humor to fully enjoy this movie. I give it a B+

This movie should have made it to the main stream. Like "Harold and Kumar", "Snatch" and other such movies, your definitely not watching this movie for the great believable story line or explosive drama. Once you get into the movie, however, it just gets better and better. The more ridiculous each character gets the better it gets! Another review mentioned this was a hidden gem and I couldn't agree more. It is nice to watch a movie that is original and well thought out, but at the same time doesn't take itself to seriously. I wish more movies were this entertaining. As I think about it the one thing that really makes this movie so good is that each character adds to the fun of the movie as a whole. Thumbs way up and prepare yourself to laugh.

"A Beginner's Guide to Endings" begins with Duke White (Harvey Keitel) rattling off odds of chance, of life, of games, and of death. He's determined to kill himself one way or another and see if his death can give his sons better odds at living a semi-functional life. He has five sons, from three different women, and we first meet them at his funeral. The eldest is Eddie (Jason Jones) and he's nicknamed "Nuts" after a failed but spirited attempt at becoming a boxer; Cal (Scott Caan) is a womanizing, scatterbrained meathead. Jacob (Paulo Costanzo) is able to hold down a house and a job, but that certainly doesn't mean he's happy. Years later came Juicebox (Jared Keeso) another failing boxer following in the footsteps of his big brother, and many years later came Todd (Siam Yu) whose arrival marked the departure of the mother of the first three. Following the funeral where Cal showed up late, Paulo tried to beat him up, and then Eddie showed him how to throw a punch, the brothers gather at a bar for the reading of the will. The will provides the plot for the film and let's just say it sends the three oldest brothers on ill- advised, death-defying stunts to reaffirm their lives. It's as funny as it is chaotic and the completely unrealistic, ridiculous antics actually go along way to complementing the clever and comedic nature of the film. At first, the odd casting (Jason Jones as a dark, brooding boxer) can distract from the good qualities, but the three elder brothers, in particular, have fantastic comedic chemistry. The best part of the casting has J.K. Simmons as the uncle and minister who tries to dispense sane advice, but don't worry, they rarely listen to him. Primarily shot and set in Niagara Falls, the city and the falls themselves provide a suitable backdrop for the unfolding and unraveling of the boys' plans and lives. Unfortunately, the film itself has a very dull or washed-out look and feel; the shots and use of colour are lacking a bit of punch that the screenplay and actors have. Perhaps it's just an outcome of the low budget, and most fans of dark comedies should be able to easily overlook it and enjoy "A Beginner's Guide to Endings".

I found this one on Netflix streaming movies. Quirky and funny, great entertainment for an afternoon with nothing better to do in the hot Texas summer. Harvey Keitel is Duke White, he hasn't been a very good man and father. He has three grown sons by his original wife, then one more via an affair, for which his wife probably would have forgiven him. But when the next son came along, after a brief affair with a Vietnamese woman, that was enough. Duke is in the process of killing himself as the movie opens, we are not quite sure why, but more details come out during the reading of the will, but Duke's brother, played well by J.K. Simmons. One of the reasons involves money that his sons were supposed to get, but Duke wasted it all on his gambling habit. The other was even bigger! The writing is very clever and the acting spot-on most of the time. Anyone who enjoys a quirky and clever comedy should enjoy this movie. SPOILERS: The second big surprise was Duke had enrolled his adult sons in a paid drug-testing program 10 years earlier, when the drug company found out the medicine causes thinning of the heart walls, they paid each one $100,000 in compensation and terminated the program. But Duke cashed all the checks for himself, and gambled the money away. He couldn't face the boys, so killed himself with a noose, a branch, and jumping in the river to go over Niagara Falls. So the boys make bucket lists of the things they want to do in the few weeks they have to live. But near the end mom shows up, reveals that the boys never took any drugs, she had switched the medicine for Tic-Tacs. And right before each boy was to make a big mistake in life, Duke's karma as he died going through the Falls helps to save each one. Too complicated to explain, one has to see the movie.

This movie is really impressive. I expected it to be some pretty bad stuff I'd turn off after a shot while but I liked it very much. The way it's told is a mixture of classic styles and it also reminded me a little of the way Tarantino tells his stories. The whole plot is cool and without comparison. Cast of characters, acting, settings, locations etc are completely awesome, character development as well. So I'm still stunned that I watched this movie 2 years after it came out and it only has 198 views with a rating of only 6.6 which is completely ridiculous to me. Music and ending are nice as well. I really liked it and I think it's one of those movies that's worth to be watched again. I guess someone did a very bad promotion for this DVD because it's worth to be watched by way more people and not only because of it's nice humor.