''Committed'' is a 2000
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed and written by
Lisa Krueger and stars
Heather Graham
Heather Joan Graham (born January 29, 1970) is an American actress. After appearing in television commercials, her first starring role in a feature film came with the teen comedy '' License to Drive'' (1988), followed by the critically acclaime ...
,
Casey Affleck
Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt (born August 12, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Satellite Award. He ...
, and
Luke Wilson.
Plot
The ever-optimistic Joline faces a challenge when her husband, flaky news photographer Carl, leaves the couple's New York City loft to find himself in Texas. Joline tracks Carl down to
El Paso
El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...
and observes him outside of his mobile home without his knowledge. She acquaints herself with Carl's schedule and his new friends, including his new girlfriend, Carmen, and his neighbor Neil. Neil, a quirky sculptor, becomes smitten with Joline. Back in New York, Joline's brother Jay goes off in search for his sister and ends up joining her in Texas. Eventually Carl spots Joline, and Joline seeks new ways of returning Carl to her life, up to and including mystic remedies provided by Carmen's grandfather.
Cast
Reception
Release
''Committed'' premiered at the 2000
Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and won the award for Best Cinematography. The film had a limited theatrical release on April 28, 2000.
Critical response
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, 43% of 46 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.40/10. The site's consensus reads: "Critics say ''Committed'' is one of those films that shows promise – some sort of vision – of what the movie could have been. The key word is 'could'. As it is, the script is predictable, the story becomes tedious, and it's simply not funny. Heather Graham shows she can play a central character, but she's not enough to make ''Committed'' successful." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
it has a score of 44% based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". ''
Metro Silicon Valley
''Metro'' is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California, based Metro Newspapers. Also known as ''Metro Silicon Valley'', as well as ''Metroactive'' online, the paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area. In addition to print ...
''s reviewer, Richard von Busack, criticized the film's "tiresome daffiness" and said it "indulges in the worst intellectual habit of the '60s counterculture—it supports putting a principle ahead of common sense".
In his review,
A. O. Scott of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' said the film has interesting ideas but fails to explore them. He also criticized the film's uncertain tone.
''Committed'' was nominated for the
Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Committed
2000 films
2000 comedy-drama films
American comedy-drama films
Miramax films
Sundance Film Festival award winners
Films set in Texas
Films shot in El Paso, Texas
Films about stalking
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
2000 independent films