Sunday, March 06, 2011

Monday Movie Musings - Mercy


I have to admit, I hadn't heard of MERCY until I started seeking out previous roles by the stars of Hawaii Five-0. But when I realized that Scott Caan wrote, produced, and starred in this movie about a romance-ish author who is cynical about love, I knew I had to watch it.

First, it's Scott Caan. Second, I'm a fan of indie films, and this definitely fit the bill. Third, romance(esque) author? I had to check it out.

Now, reviews/descriptions of the film called Scott's character a romance author. But in watching the film, I'd have to say that wasn't exactly true. He wrote about love, but it didn't appear that he was a romance author per se. My guess is the character's books were more in the Nicholas Sparks vein. I was also amused, prior to watching it, to read that the character met the heroine at the launch party for his new book. Most of the romance authors I know (including me) don't have launch parties thrown for each new book. However, that's not quite what happened either. It was more a party for the writer and his friends, to celebrate the book release, not a formal launch party that might be thrown by the publisher in an official capacity.

So some of the reservations I had about the film ended up being more a "lost in translation" issue with write-ups about it, rather than the film itself.


And I really ended up liking the film. It was emotional and heartbreaking, and Scott did a good job with all of his roles - producer, writer, and actor. It was very cool to see him act with his father, who was fantastic. And I honestly didn't see the twist until it was right there.

Like the main character's books, it's not a romance, but it is about love, loss, and growth. And I definitely recommend it to fans of indie film and/or Scott Caan.

1 comment:

jlopie(Lynnette) said...

Kate - great review of Mercy. Like you, I had never heard of Mercy until falling in love with Danny Williams on Hawaii 5-0 and needing to find everything Scott Caan had previously done. Mercy is just a gem of an indy film. I just watched Dallas 362, an earlier indy that Scott wrote, directed and starred in. It's older, 2005, I think, so it's a younger Scott playing a younger character. It's a totally different story, but equally engrossing. Then there is The Dog Problem, that's next on my queue! It's also written and directed by Scott. He's been quite the busy fellow, but always just under the radar.