Today’s quick review: Alex of Venice. Already stretched thin by her work as an environmental lawyer, Alex (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is blindsided when her husband George (Chris Messina) walks out on her, leaving her to take care of their son Dakota (Skylar Gartner) and her aging father Roger (Don Johnson). Left with too much work for one person to do, Alex turns to her party-loving sister Lily (Katie Nehra) for help.
Alex of Venice is a drama about a suddenly single mother trying to pick up the pieces of her life. Alex of Venice is an exploration of Alex’s life and the myriad pressures on her, ranging from getting her son to school on time to preparing for an important court case. Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a good job of capturing Alex’s predicament as a woman who wants to help her family but doesn’t have all the answers.
Where Alex of Venice comes up short is its story. The movie does have a clear progression, charting the course of Alex’s latest case, her relationship with George, and her father’s attempts to get back into acting. But none of these plot threads are developed enough to serve as a backbone for the story. Without a single thread to structure the story, there is no clear rise or fall in tension, and therefore no real climax or emotional payoff.
As such, Alex of Venice is more a snapshot of a family’s life than a fully developed story in its own right. Fans of the challenges and disappointments of life will find Alex of Venice to be an interesting movie to contemplate, thanks to its fine acting and the variety of troubles its characters face. However, viewers hoping for a drama that turns these concepts into an emotionally powerful story will find the movie unstructured and disappointing.
For a more comedic rumination on life’s struggles, check out Hannah and Her Sisters. For a poignant, slice-of-life comedy about two sisters forced to make do, try Sunshine Cleaning.
[5.8 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2977090/). I give it a 6.0 to 6.5 for interesting characters and a weak plot.