SCREEN

STANDING STILL

Josh Bell

It'd be nice to say that Standing Still, the first film from the Vegas-based production company Insomnia Entertainment, is a great piece of filmmaking that heralds the arrival of major talent from Sin City. It'd be nice, even, to say that Standing Still is a formulaic but entertaining mainstream film that will find success with middle-of-the-road moviegoers. Unfortunately, I can't say either of those things about Standing Still, which, given that it's limping into theaters nearly two years after its completion, is likely to go down as neither an artistically nor commercially successful first venture.


Trying hard to be The Big Chill for a new generation, Standing Still follows several friends reuniting for the wedding of two of their group. Although it boasts a number of telegenic young stars, some of whom (James Van Der Beek and Mena Suvari in particular) turn in strong performances, the film remains an ill-defined mishmash of clichés, with poorly sketched characters and leaden dialogue. Even Amy Adams, who in the time between Standing Still's production and release was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Junebug, doesn't do much to distinguish the platitudes that the writers give her to spout.


Like American Wedding with fewer poop jokes and more self-serious speeches about where people are headed in life, Standing Still doesn't even manage enough cheap laughs to qualify for anything other than a quick theatrical run before heading straight for video-store bargain bins.

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