Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) hates his job. His ex-wife and son hate him, and he's blown his one shot at living his dream. Not wanting to face all this, he stages his own death and buys himself a new identity as Arthur Newman. However, Arthur's road trip towards a new life is interrupted by the arrival of the beautiful but fragile Mike (Emily Blunt), who is also trying to leave her past behind. Drawn to one another, these two damaged souls begin to connect as they stalk, break into empty homes and take on the identities of the absent owners: elderly newlyweds, a high-roller and his Russian lady, among others. Through this process, Arthur and Mike discover that what they love most about each other are the identities they left at home, and their real journey, that of healing, begins.
The characters may be quirky, but they're not likable. Loneliness can be depressing, but Wallace doesn't have much reason to leave everything and everyone behind in such an inhumane way. Him and Mike stalking and living other people's lives in their homes, wearing their clothes, sleeping on their bed to cope with their own problems was quite weird and frankly, not much fun to watch. The effect is greater if you tune out the joyful background score. That might have been what they were going for, but it doesn't translate well on-screen. Great actors like Emily Blunt and Colin Firth are simply wasted here. They have no chemistry with one another and during many moments, Wallace just seemed like her father which was disturbing. I also don't know why Mina (Anne Heche) was written the way she was. This grown, professional woman was like a meek teenager around that little kid. Someone realized how banal the whole thing was and did the only thing they could to distract people from realizing that. They threw in a lot of a half-naked Emily Blunt and showed lots of acts which just wasn't warranted and came off as tacky. The movie tries to be thoughtful, but it cannot sustain that illusion. There's also a half-baked, contrived message in there somewhere to treasure what you already have or something. Unfortunately, it still doesn't salvage this movie from being incredibly boring.
3/10
The characters may be quirky, but they're not likable. Loneliness can be depressing, but Wallace doesn't have much reason to leave everything and everyone behind in such an inhumane way. Him and Mike stalking and living other people's lives in their homes, wearing their clothes, sleeping on their bed to cope with their own problems was quite weird and frankly, not much fun to watch. The effect is greater if you tune out the joyful background score. That might have been what they were going for, but it doesn't translate well on-screen. Great actors like Emily Blunt and Colin Firth are simply wasted here. They have no chemistry with one another and during many moments, Wallace just seemed like her father which was disturbing. I also don't know why Mina (Anne Heche) was written the way she was. This grown, professional woman was like a meek teenager around that little kid. Someone realized how banal the whole thing was and did the only thing they could to distract people from realizing that. They threw in a lot of a half-naked Emily Blunt and showed lots of acts which just wasn't warranted and came off as tacky. The movie tries to be thoughtful, but it cannot sustain that illusion. There's also a half-baked, contrived message in there somewhere to treasure what you already have or something. Unfortunately, it still doesn't salvage this movie from being incredibly boring.
3/10