PEOPLE LIKE US (Alex Kurtzman 2012)

[tabuno]

Alex Kurtzman better known for his television producer/director credentials such Fringe, Hawaii Five-0 and Alias has picked an above average family drama script to create a solidly female-skewing movie, at least according to IMDb, and turned it into an intensely emotional journey of coming of age movie of a single young man who could have come directly from the 1980s and corporate/Wall Street America. While some might complain about predictable stereotypical soap opera singular dimensionality, People Like Us comes across with much more sincerity and humanity, refreshing in its focus on mother-son and brother-sister relationships instead of the by now almost mundane, over-used romantic relationship between a man and a woman. Instead, Kurtzman presents a straight forward drama taking the mainstream feature film format to the edge with its literally hard-hitting scenes while maintaining that polished, qualitative cinematic presentation. The script, the characters all unfold in a tight, well-edited, emotive and best of all meaningful feature film experience. Again, while some audience member, especially men, will only experience the predictable, formulaic plot, for the rest of the audience, mostly female, they will see that the script and the director has infused the story with more genuine, "People Like Us" ordinary, audience people into the movie itself and forces at least some of its audience to reflect on the "what if" it was me having to make these decisions, what would I do? By taking ordinary but important human relationship material and shifting the focus to the mother-son, brother and sister focus, with the romance only a side trip, and adding the uncle-nephew story, the movie offers a new look at relationships, the complexity of real life scenarios and how people have to deal with such tragedies and redemption. This movie is inspirational and enlightening. What makes this movie rather special is its avoidance of a strong element of humor (which can be used to cover up a movie's weakness) which is only barely and directly offered in tiny brief shots in this movie and in a very well edited and effective manner and instead the movie confidently presenting the drama of the story itself, along with a nice blending of accompanying music to present its delivery.