Personal Effects starts with much confusion (e.g. who’s the narrator/protagonist) and ends with a simplistic happy end.
So is there a meaty middle part?
Here’s the plot: Ashton’s character has lost his twin sister in a violent crime and he’s having a tough time recovering from it.
Michelle’s character is similarly struck by her husband’s being shot to death.
Being a MILF (in the parlance of our times), requires her to be a mother (of a a deaf/mute teenager). Michelle’s son becomes the link between the two. This guy makes an unlikely Cupid and I couldn’t find anything likable about him.
In short, Michelle and Ashton fall in love… and the only twist is that the son (Cupid) ends up in jail.
I hope I’m not ruining the surprise factor (there is none), since both Michelle and Ashton are type-cast and regardless of the context (recovery from losing a loved one), the movie does play like an extra long version of MILF hunter.
This was an interesting movie about real people and the human condition, worth seeing at least once, but it’s very slow, not as fast paced as what American audiences are now accustomed too. Good performances especially by the actresses.