I almost have too many things to say about this film. About its words and its songs and its cast, mood, heart, laughter. I watched it for the fifth time a couple of nights ago and with each viewing something new is drawn to the front of the scene, a lost look is caught between frames or a sentence throws itself into your head. I can't hide the fact that I love both the writing of Dave Eggers and the likeability John Krasinski brings to the screen. When you sew these two together by way of the direction of Sam Mendes, it feels like they were all just waiting to climb into your pocket and go home with you.
Without any pretence, this is a film about belonging. About figuring out where you are meant to be in this world, and just as importantly, where you aren't. There is so much going on yet Burt and Verona have such a stillness. A simple individual kind of love that binds them together in the middle of everything. It's done with such humour and moulded by a wonderfully shared, private language that you instantly put a mental thumb tack in all that hope because it underpins the entire screenplay.
This film runs along so closely with my own philosophy of life that at times I have found, lost and then stumbled across myself again inside it. It has its fingerprints all over my skin.. Love, love, love this film. Top five, never to be shaken. Gush, hands-clasped, eyes-wide wonderful.
Here are three of the songs that the film guides you through.
"...so watch your time turn to sand and let it spill quietly from your hands... don't be afraid of what you find..."
"...so i'm trying to put it right, 'cause i want to love you with my heart. all this trying has made me tight, and i dont know even where to start... maybe that's a start..."
"...you are my home. and here is what i know now, here is what i know now, goes like this..."
