Hitflix reviews Chris Weitz's 'A Better Life'
For Chris, the high watermark so far has been "About A Boy," the 2002 film he made starring Hugh Grant and a young Nicolas Hoult. I love that film. I love the performances, and I especially love the way it seems to take its time and leave a lot of room for raw humanity, in no hurry to get to the clever concept or the big twist. It's a simple film, direct and real. Since then, "The Golden Compass" and "Twilight: New Moon" both felt like detours that did nothing for Weitz as a filmmaker, but I understand the freedom that a hit like "New Moon" buys for you as a director, and it looks to me like Weitz cashed that freedom in on his new film, and it may be the best choice he's ever made.
There's no way to deny that the script, with story by Roger L. Simon and screenplay by Eric Eason, owes a nod to the structure of the classic Vittorio De Sica film "Bicycle Thieves," and I'm sure Weitz would acknowledge it. But if you think this is just a remake of that movie, or just a modern update of it, you'd be wrong. The basic structure allows Weitz to use the movie as part of a larger conversation about the modern immigrant experience, and the divided world that is Los Angeles.
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