When you research for a new movie to watch with an impressive-enough summary, "Chronically Metropolitan" may pop up on the screen of your local Redbox machine. Eventually, Netflix does bring up new, fresh films. But the wait just couldn't be too long when it comes to a writer feeding off some aspiration attached to that very film.
The movie started off as a family of writers coming together after the divorced father had a car accident. The son came back home to New York City for the first time after his novel got published. The daughter has been a blogger while living in an upscale apartment with their divorced mother. Since the father has been the patriarchal author himself, he was described as "Charlie Sheen with a Ph.D." It had this theme of a dysfunctional family being so snobby and white-collar that I've never thought of before.
A year ago, I already had my short list of movies that inspire me to write more. For "Chronically Metropolitan," it brought up more awareness on how some writers bring their egocentrism to impact their readers too personally than the work itself. The son soon learns about how his novel was meant to be "fiction," but it resembles too much of his personal life. It led his parents getting a divorce after he exposed the father's infidelity. His book also hurt the relationships of both his childhood friend and his ex-girlfriend.
When it comes to the casting of this film, I recognized only two of the actors. Mary-Louise Parker- once known for the lead character of Weeds- played the mother that also handled marijuana in the beginning. Not to encourage the recreational use within New York City, but I found it amusing if the screenwriter might've intentionally wrote the role specifically for her. Later, I could see how Josh Peck well-improved his acting after so much experience I've seen growing up watching Drake & Josh. For those want to review the movie negatively like the Rotten Tomatoes, maybe the acting could get more praise than the story.
If I had to improve my film criticism, I would have to give "Chronically Metropolitan" a 3/5 rating. It has a clever way of opening credits by typing out the names like the TV screen was the writer's desktop, but it should've brought more liberty to writers for leaving out the entire writing process. It could've brought a better understanding of the protagonist's style and aspirations other than his family. If any moviegoer wants to be author someday, they could be judge on whether this the wrong or right way to get a debut novel out there. If this film gets remade, the protagonist should be self-publishing his "so-called" fiction work to put more of the blame on him to make the story so personal.
Love or hate it, make this film as a lesson to be learned: Fiction should be written to bring light of a simple reality.
