Ricardo Daly The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

rogerdarlington In its home territory of the United States, this movie is called "At Middleton" since it is located at a college called Middleton, but this is a singularly unhelpful title and around the world there have been many variations. In the UK, where I viewed it, it is called "Just One Day" which has the benefit of telling the potential viewer something relevant. So, by now, you'll have worked out that all the film is located in one place and over one day. Although the purpose of the visit is to enable two youngsters to assess whether they wish to study at this particular college, the core of the story is about their parents played by Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga who soon give up on their kids and the official tour and make their own explorations of both the grounds and their emotions. It's kind of updated version of the classic British film "Brief Encounter" (1945).It's an episodic movie with a lot of humour and some pathos but some scenes work better than others. The cleverest scene is when the two adults find themselves required to participate in an improvisation acting class. The silliest is when they get high on a marijuana bong. What makes the work rather charming is the warmth of the two leads. Garcia never seems to have quite fulfilled the early potential shown as long ago as 1987 in "The Untouchables" and has put on a bit of weight since, but he is still a fine actor. The much younger Vera Farmiga - there is a 17 year age difference between the pair - first came to my attention in "Up In The Air (2009) and to my mind is still not fully appreciated for her talent and rare beauty (those blue eyes). Incidentally this movie is a bit of a family affair with Garcia's daughter playing a minor role and Farmiga's sister filling the role of her daughter.

The_late_Buddy_Ryan Andy Garcia: "A spirochete. Do you know what that is?" Vera Farmiga: "Is it something like a parakeet?" AG: "It's a parakeet that was a spy during the Spanish-American War." VF: (cracks up)If you think that someone might actually say that, and that someone else would crack up laughing when they did—then have I got a movie for you! (I admit I overlooked some obvious red flags in the reviews on IMDb before we sent for the disk from Netflix b/c I like to err on the side of Vera Farmiga.) She and her way-younger sister Taissa make a convincing mother-daughter combo, and Andy Garcia's not bad either, but the romcom cliché plot (free-spirited babe awakens uptight guy's inner child) and the trying-too-hard dialogue were just too much for us. There's also a lot of silly filler—montage of carefree bicycle ride around sunny campus; Vera scampers up staircase of church belfry while acrophobe Garcia clings to the railing .We pressed the Stop button shortly after the above exchange, and from what I gather from the reviews when I ✔ed them out again, the first half of the movie was the good part.

mgamblemad I do not want to spoil the plot in any way, so I'm just going to tell you my thoughts of the performances. Andy Garcia... gave an amazing performance. Vera Farmiga... I can only say WOW. These two really are amazing together in this film. I know this film isn't flashy in any way, and the story may bother some people, but the acting is simply brilliant. Taissa Farmiga and Spencer Lofranco also put in very good performances. I also thought the work of Danielle Garcia and Stephen Borello were performed very well.What I have noticed is that a movie such as this, isn't just the acting though. The writing and directing of this film are also done very well. It was a complete joy to for me to watch.Bottom Line: If you enjoy well Written Dialog; A film that is very well Acted and Directed, with some Romance. You'll love this movie.

maurice yacowar This "little film" is surprisingly ambitious — and effective. It subverts the college student rom-com by focusing on the parents at their nest emptying. For both generations this new liberation can be terrifying. As Edith tells another parent, the kids' departure leaves the parents realizing how little they know or are connected to their 18-year partners. The theatrical scene Edith plays with George reveals how a marriage can hide lives of quiet desperation. In the crowning irony, the two college roommates coolly watch the two adults getting stoned and acting wacky, under their knowing eye. The film also replays the old Benedict/Beatrice device of characters who initially snipe at each other gradually discovering themselves simpatico. George and Edith begin and end as opposites, but they switch poles. At first he's the rod-ass and she's the bohemian free spirit. She cures his fear of heights, he her temptation to be totally carefree. By the end he's loosened up enough to want to have an affair with her and she retreats to the safer ground of self-denial.Their respective kids replay that shift. Conrad leaves the security of his studly "million dollar smile" to pursue his disembodied, faceless role on campus radio. Wilder and more precocious Audrey takes to heart her idol's distinction between healthy ambition and unhealthy obsession.In both those relationships — and in the respective parents' scenes with their kids — there is ample demonstration of what Audrey reads from her idol's book: linguistics must deal with what is not said as much as with what is. Heard sentences are meaty but those unheard are meatier. Hence the really delicate work in facial expression and body language throughout, especially as the leads increasingly open up and connect. Hence the confessional Truth behind the two parents stage "performance."The campus name, Middleton, puts all its characters in some middle. The two teens are pivoting into adulthood. The two parents are turning from the stability of their unfulfilling marriages into self-realization — or not. Both turn passive at the moment of decision, as imaged in their letting their kids drive. When George prefers the long way home he's taking more time to face the life he dreads, to put behind the happier alternative he has just encountered. Informed by the reflections on French films, we don't get the usual American film's happy ending. But the chance remains. We're hoping this one-shot might lead to a Richard Linklater trilogy where we can follow these so very touching and appealing lovers into a happier afterlife. Finally the film is about what a college education should be. The two parents get a college education in one day when they meet new people, try out each other's alien perspectives and experience, act out exploratory expressions of themselves, learn to breathe more freely and deeply, get new insight into themselves and each other, test experimental things they never would in their outside (aka "real") lives, and end up significantly altered, illuminated, broadened in understanding and emotion, whichever road they pursue. It's an idyllic university, a slice of heaven, so the disciplines represented are literature, language, horticulture, the arts, and the pulse is in the library. The linguistics (!) professor's office is a jaw-dropper. The salutary absence of Business, High Tech, a football team, make the setting as Edenic as the two leads' romantic discovery. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com