Sunday, May 1, 2011

Welcome to the Rileys

Doug and Lois lost their teenage daughter in a car wreck and have slowly been drifting apart. She is a frail mess never leaving the house and he seeks comfort in another woman's arms. When he is sent to New Orleans on business, he sneaks away from a convention to a strip club where he meets a young dancer. The two strike up a friendship and somehow he finds himself moving into her dingy house and notifying his wife he won't be home anytime soon. As Doug starts a platonic relationship with the young girl and uses her to fill the void left by her daughter, they are soon joined be Lois as all three begin to play house and repair their lives. Essentially, Welcome to the Rileys is contrived hackneyed drivel that no one would buy. The dialogue is godawful and the only thing that the movie has going for it is the presence of James Gandolfini, who again demonstrates his acting prowess playing a restrained character. Melissa Leo does OK work, but her performance lacks fire and she is really playing a neurotic, something she was not born to do. Kristen Stewart is a good looking woman but doesn't have the acting chops to pull off this role and is pretty terrible when you get down to it. This film is from director Jake Scott and it didn't have a theatrical run and I sincerely doubt that it would have been made at all if his dad wasn't Ridley.