FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

2freensel I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

SnoopyStyle Keith Bergman (Ben Chaplin) comes home from L.A. to North Carolina for his dying mother (Sally Field)'s last days. His sister Emily (Julianne Nicholson) is reading everything to prepare for her death. His brother Barry (Tom Cavanagh) is a businessman missing his trip. The youngest brother Matthew (Glenn Howerton) shows up with his uncaring wife Katrina (Clea DuVall). They end up staying for two weeks as the family tries to get along.Written and directed by newcomer Steve Stockman, the lack of visual style and cinematic touches are very evident. I don't know how he got such a great cast but they give him a fight chance. The script has some fun scenes and touching insights into dying. However the directing is very flat and it holds the movie back. The cast makes a good attempt but it's not quite there.

charlytully TWO WEEKS has at least three (3) f-words, one of which is right here in the "memorable quotes" section. If you have just two f-words or less, you're eligible for a PG-13 rating. If you have three, you're not. (One exception is ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, the 1976 winner of four Oscars, which got its original "R" rating changed to "PG" upon appeal when the producers explained you could not do a bio-pic about Richard Milhouse Nixon without having at least the 11 f-words which appeared in the final cut.) Believe it or not, most movie production people can count as high as three. Rationing out the f-words is the main way they CHOOSE their own rating. Anyone who watches TWO WEEKS will understand that the totally gratuitous f-words were included to "win" an "R" rating.Regarding that second Oscar which Sally Field did NOT win for TWO WEEKS: yes, EVERY lead character was eligible to be nominated for 2007 acting honors, because the film was playing on as many as three screens during the month of March (see the "Box Office\Business" section here). But no person has been nominated this century in the acting categories for a film with a domestic gross of under $50,000, and TWO WEEKS raked in only $45,816.

Ed Uyeshima The humor is way too forced, superficial and well-trodden to add the well-intentioned black comedy elements this otherwise bittersweet soap opera needs, but this 2007 film offers a vanity-free Sally Field giving a powerhouse performance as Anita Bergman, the dying mother of four grown children. The movie's title refers to the amount of time her character is expected to live before succumbing to ovarian cancer. With the clock ticking, the four children gather at her North Carolina home from different parts of the country and respond differently to the imminent tragedy. Directed and written by Steve Stockman as a series of vignettes, the characterizations represent different archetypes, and the actors are left to flesh them out to some human dimension. The results of their efforts are variable.Affecting an unrecognizable American accent, Ben Chaplin fares the poorest as eldest brother Keith, an LA-based filmmaker whose sarcastic jokes are meant to shield him from feelings of insecurity and guilt. His character has the most screen time, yet his constantly jokey facade gets in the way of any sympathy we have for him. At first, Tom Cavanaugh plays Ben, the son Anita has dubbed the responsible one, as an obnoxious yuppie workaholic who gradually reveals his fears of loss but fades in the background. As only daughter Beth, Julianne Nicholson is terrific in unconditionally embracing her role as chief caretaker given that her mother is really her best friend, for better or worse. Youngest brother Matthew is drawn in the broadest strokes as the picked-upon baby of the family, and his resentment has manifested itself with a shrewish wife whom everybody else hates.On the sidelines is Anita's second husband of 13 years, Jim, played by James Murtagh, who glowers in resentment as her children take over their house with nary a thought in his direction. Anita's first husband and the father of her children exists as a shadowy figure in the story, and Anita - in one of many revealing videotaped excerpts - has obviously not fully come to terms with her divorce. These clips - showing Anita recorded by Keith in an earlier stage of her cancer - are used as a dramatically effective framing device for the story, and Field shows herself to be at the height of her artistry in these scenes even when the material gets mawkish. Stockman based the story on the death of his own mother in 1997, and this experience informs a lot of the moments in the film, especially the brutalizing scenes of Anita's rapid decline under hospice care.The 2007 DVD is two-sided split between full and widescreen versions and with the extras divvied up. Stockman provides an informative commentary track accompanied periodically by Dr. Ira Byock, a physician specializing in treating those knowingly facing death. There's also a solid 23-minute making-of featurette, "Learning to Live Through Dying", and four scenes labeled deleted though truthfully only one is deleted while the other three are extended. There is a group discussion guide included in each version that provides text questions to help the viewer face the death of a loved one.

betsyd02 This is truly representative of what losing a loved one feels like--of course, sad. But, there is an element of humor, reaching for relief while recognizing in utter submission, our own mortality. And, of course, there is anger.This film is worth seeing. It was sweet and a wonderful tribute to a family going through a phase of life that we all will see. Sallie Fields and all the actors did a fantastic job. Thank you for making a film that means something. No car chases, but meaningful words and great acting.The R rating seems to be very harsh compared to the language.