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I was surprised the critics were so "generous" with their ratings for this movie, which is why I don't trust the critics anymore. They hailed this movie as a great homage to the time and gave great praise to Julianne Moore on her portrayal of a housewife in turmoil on the secret that rips apart her family set in the 1950's.... Her husband is having an affair... with a man. From there the story is supposed to be about her growing friendship with her black gardener as he helps her come to terms with the trauma unfolding in her life.

... at least that's what the back of cover of the DVD said.

I found Julianne Moore's character to be very one-dimensional. NOTHING phased this woman. She was so damn cheery about everything it was obnoxious. I wanted the husband to punch her just so she'd react to something. She was SO optimistic about everything it just didn't feel natural. I understand that as the wife of a big executive of a company you have to act the part, but she just took it too far. I couldn't identify with her at all.

Dennis Quaid actually did a really good job, even though his part was minimal. I thought he had a great balance of being the big executive for a well known company and being torn about his secret.

As for the gardener... he wasn't really even in the story. They hung out once and then some nosy neighbor caught them and so that put a kibosh on that friendship. Later she realized that she had feelings for him even though there was hardly any interaction between the two.

There were a few strong connections between the two but not enough for me to say that this movie held a strong plot line. I think the writer's really stretched this one out. Meaning they had enough material to make a 45 minute movie, but the director said they needed to really make this a 90 minute movie... so they did. By adding some really slow scenes to elongate this as much as possible.

Great job guys.

*rolls eyes.