The Oranges is a hard film to sum up. Hard in the sense that I don’t think the writers knew what, or who the story was about, so how is the audience meant to?
We open with a voice over by Vanessa (Alia Shawkat) talking about her life, and how it hasn’t quite panned out. She’s 24, out of college and still living at home with her parents, David and Paige Walling (Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener). She tells us of her parents lives, their best friends from across the road, Terry and Carol Ostroff (Oliver Platt, Allison Janney), and their daughter, Nina (Leighton Meester) – how they used to be BFF’s and now Nina is somewhere off living her life and they’re no longer friends. So, we think the film is about Vanessa, and her difficulties as a young woman trying to make it in life, trying to move to New York and bag her dream job. We get an insight into the families lives. Mr. & Mrs. Walling seem to have a bit of tension, David is living in a pool house and Paige seems a bit uptight and controlling. The Ostroffs are normal enough, Terry is a little off and Carol is a bit overbearing but they seem happy, their only issue is missing their daughter. Nina won’t come home for Thanksgiving, but after discovering her boyfriend is cheating on her she heads back to New Jersey with her tail between her legs. At this point it’s revealed the Wallings’ have a son, Toby (Adam Brody), who Vanessa just decided to forget to mention in the opening voice over. Carol would love nothing more than Nina and Toby to become an item, bringing their two families even closer together. In a strange, almost out of nowhere moment however, Nina and David kiss.
This moment is annoying the way it’s handled, there’s no build up, no angst for David – who is a grown man still married and should have his doubts about fooling around with his neighbours’ (and best friend’s) daughter. The aftermath, though, is where the film gets lost. The plot just seems to be confused. We jump between the characters aimlessly, all but Vanessa, who originally the film seemed to be about – that theory now scrapped. We start to see David and Nina’s relationship blossom but the scenes don’t seem to give any order or knowledge of when it’s all going on and what’s happening. We then go back to a voice over from Vanessa and again it feels like the film doesn’t know who’s story to tell. The relationship continues and we see how all parties involve deal with it. Vanessa is just angry, angry at Nina for getting with her father, angry at her father for showing so little love to his own daughter. Terry is conflicted, he loves his best friend but he’s angry at the same time. He also seems in awe of how happy and rejuvenated his life seems, and takes inspiration from that to improve his own life. Paige just seems to be bottling everything up until she hits a bursting point, and that’s exactly what we get towards the end. I suspect this was meant to come off comically but it just feels flat, which is a running theme for The Oranges.
The way the film tries to handle this very strange situation is just plain wrong. It’s like they’re trying to be a kooky Indie Comedy but it’s just not funny. There are mild moments of humour, mostly from Terry (Oliver Platt) but it in no way constitutes calling this film a comedy. Films are about being a bit out of reality, that’s fine and why a lot of people watch films, but to completely ignore social conventions is just irritating, no two families would ever behave this way if the father was diddling the other family’s younger daughter.
We’re not given a reason to care about any of these characters. Apparently told by her point of view, Vanessa is rarely seen. The Ostroffs seem to be coping fine with their daughters’ new relationship with their close friend, and David, Paige and Nina just come off as really, really annoying. How can an audience relate to, sympathise with and care about characters we don’t actually like. Poor Adam Brody is completely wasted in this film, used for about 2 minutes at the beginning and then disappears to the final ‘showdown’ so to speak, and then not even mentioned once again in Vanessa’s ending voice over. His very small performance was actually one of the best in the films. He was like the audience, completely out of the loop and trying to play catch up, and giving the most genuine reaction with the situation to boot.
The Oranges had a lot of potential – especially with such a good cast – to be a good film but it sadly just seems undecided on what it wants to be, and who it wants to impress.
Rating – A few rays of light but not enough to make it memorable. (4/10)
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