Laurel Canyon

2002

Action / Drama

12
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 52% · 113 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 52% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 18036 18K

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Plot summary

When an uptight young man and his fiancée move into his libertine mother's house, the resulting clash of life attitudes shakes everyone up.

Director

Lisa Cholodenko Photo
Lisa Cholodenko

Top cast

Ariel Felix Photo
Ariel Felix as Mark
Kate Beckinsale Photo
Kate Beckinsale as Alex
Christian Bale Photo
Christian Bale as Sam
Catherine McGoohan Photo
Catherine McGoohan as Mrs. Elliot
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
946.83 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 3
1.9 GB
1920*1072
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 16

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by manuel-pestalozzi 6 / 10

Tough chicken

I watched this movie with my mother. Halfway through it she thought Lisa Cholodenko was an Ukranian filmmaker who wanted to make a comedy about Los Angeles. I told her she was wrong and that it was a feminist view of a Los Angeles native on the war of the sexes. She had to agree in the end.Men who like soft, womanly women had probably better stay away from Laurel Canyon. It serves tough chicken. And men are wimps. What impressed me (and made me show it to my mom) is the amount of contempt the story shows the the son of the main character, the latter being a domineering, successful music producer who changes her lovers regularly. The son is a trained psychiatrist and a gentle and considerate person who likes to live a life one might call conventional. His aim in life seems to be to serve and to be useful, not personal success or even glory, maybe not even satisfaction (the opening sex scene with the girlfriend seems to indicate that). Not surprisingly he blames his mother for the instability he experienced as a child and would like to keep his distance from her. Yet he moves into her house in Laurel Canyon for professional reasons, assuming she would live elsewhere at that time. For some unexpected reason this is not the case. Along with the son comes his equally conventional, career oriented highbrow girlfriend who likes to finish her doctoral thesis. The girlfriend is fascinated by the encounter with the mother and her entourage and „opens up" and blends in. He does not and I felt that it is somehow held against him.The movie sets out to show that the son hasn't got a chance against his powerhouse mother and that his lifestyle and attitudes are basically wrong and stupid. It does not explain the characters, the girlfriend's transformation for instance is presented with disarming simplicity as a „natural process". Within the social dynamics of the ashram-like household the ideal man is presented: an irresponsible acting cute sex toy who also happens to be a musician and singer (although not a very good one) and who, I assume, is already scheduled for being discarded in due time.The cast is better than the story. Frances McDormand is really brilliant as the mother and gives her character unexpected charm and charisma. It really makes you believe she is successful in her job. Natascha McElhone's beauty is somehow beyond belief and slightly surreal. She plays the son's companion from work and potential lover. That wimp is of course much too inhibited to seize the opportunity. The relationship remains platonic, which may well cause further frustration and loathing. Incidentally, the location which serves as the mother's house is just beautiful (I wouldn't mind living in a place like that) and well used as location.I did not like this movie, and yet I can recommend it. It's interesting and offers a lot for later discussions.
Reviewed by moonspinner55 5 / 10

Terribly unsubtle, with plot points telegraphed far in advance...

Tempers--and libidos!--are bound to flare up when a handsome young first-year resident at a Los Angeles hospital (Christian Bale) and his practicing M. D. girlfriend (Kate Beckinsale) go to stay with his promiscuous, pot-smoking record-producer mother (Frances McDormand) at her home in the Hollywood Hills. Sophomoric drama from writer-director Lisa Cholodenko, who handicaps her already beleaguered script--which sees Los Angeles as Partytown USA--with absolutely no grasp of musical or cultural history. What the filmmaker does have is a fetish for California architecture (with mailboxes piled up outside and buildings flashing by), and yet she treats it all as rustic eye-candy without subtext, so that the ambiance of the milieu nearly becomes irrelevant (this story could take place in Burbank). McDormand gives the film some personality (her straightforward, unhurried and unhindered nature does more for the picture than it does for her), but Bale and Beckinsale look and act like vapid supermodels and the subplot about a rock band trying to get their new record in the can is curiously naïve. ** from ****
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