Film Review: ‘Stuck in Love’

By Mahfuza Sabiha

Accomplished writers pull some of their best works from their own experience. Director and writer Josh Boone’s “Stuck in Love” is an independent rom-com drama that tells the story of a family of writers, and how the ups-and-downs in their love lives shape their path towards their literary careers. Released in 2012, it boasts a well-known and all-white cast, including Jennifer Connelly, Greg Kinnear, Kristen Bell, Logan Lerman, Lily Collins, Nat Wolff, and Liana Liberato. “Stuck in Love” has a slightly cliche and predictable plot line that doesn’t match up with it’s supposed indie genre. However, it’s artistic insight into the lives of writers and the obstacles they may face in the process of writing a great book makes it a film worthy of its stellar cast and production.

“Stuck in Love” is centered around a family of three writers, all dealing with issues that affected their ability to write as well as make sense of the world around them. The trio is led by the father of the bunch, Bill Borgens (Kinnear), a renowned writer who has trouble shaking off his past—a divorce with his wife, Erica (Connelly), who left him for a younger man. His inability to move on is introduced along with his long-time writer’s block, as he spends his days going through the motions. With the help of his neighbor, Tricia (Bell), Bill tries to transition from his pitiful state and move on. The daughter of the family, Sam (Collins), is a newly published author and college student who recoils from the idea of stable relationships and instead spends passes her time with random hookups. Her recent success as a writer stemmed from her experience as a girl who was harshly exposed to the broken relationship between her parents—and the emotions that the events brought upon her. Her habits change as she meets a young man who promises everything in a love she doesn’t believe in. The youngest of the family is the typical coming-of-age character—Rusty, (Wolff), a shy high school student and struggling writer who harbors a crush on his popular classmate, Kate (Liberto). His relationship with the girl, who carries enough baggage for entire film, brings him out of his own writer’s block. The three dysfunctional characters and the people who help them secure themselves through a series of dramatic events make up the film’s plot.

This film is set up to walk you through the lives of three characters who lead very different lives, although they are all connected by family. Each of the three family members have been through enough drama and life-changing tension in the span of the film to be able to carry the story on their own. The movie is presented to seem as if it is showing you three different movies with three different plots—until it crosses their paths in a couple of moments throughout the film.”Stuck in Love” is a family-oriented movie, but revolves the film around the three members of a four-member family. It is interesting to see how Boone involves Erica, the only member of the family who is not a writer, and how she appears in the film every now and then—almost analogous to her involvement in the family after she left her husband and children. Erica becomes a side character that exists in Bill’s third of the movie, rather than a member of the family itself.

The film’s cinematography and soundtrack proved to be outstanding. Set in a remote beach town, many of the “quiet” scenes, where the characters were shown truly contemplating and repairing their own dysfunction, were set against vast and empty beaches with gentle waves being heard as serious conversations were being made. The “loud” party scenes, where all the drama and tension culminated, were accompanied by all the people who were otherwise absent from the film and made the drama appear to be more frantic. The film’s producers used the lack of people in calmer scenes and the mass of people in climaxes to add to the emotions of each scene, leaving the viewer feeling more relaxed or excited, respectively. The soundtrack had a similar effect, as the score involved ballad songs as well as band music that added to the feeling of each scene.

“Stuck in Love” is true to indie standards in that it has a calm yet quirky vibe. It portrays the bad moments as well as the good moments, showing just how much of a bumpy road life can be in all its beauty. The film did carry more drama than was needed, bringing up issues of divorce, jealousy, cheating, drug use, mental issues, and family sickness. The great amount of drama and thematic issues admittedly made the characters less relatable, as well as making the audience wonder whether writers have to go through that many issues in order to be “great” writers. The film was also a little too clean-cut for an indie film, starting off during a Thanksgiving dinner and ending during next year’s Thanksgiving dinner—which relayed the idea that all of the issues that the film brought up were all solved and tidied within the span of a year. In the end, however, “Stuck in Love” successfully portrays the life of a writer as what it is—a series of bumps in the road, some greater than others, that does nothing better than make for a great story.