Bonobo (2014)

Bonobo: Directed by Matthew Hammett Knott. With James Norton, Tessa Peake-Jones, Will Tudor, Josie Lawrence. A feuding mother and daughter find an unlikely source of help to reunite them – at a hippie commune, the last place that conservative, high-brow Judith ever thought she’d step foot in.

“Although the movie has an interesting premise – a human community organized to mimic the social lifestyle of the Bonobos, where social problems are resolved with sex – it doesnu0026#39;t do anything with this wonderful gem of an idea. I mean, think about it – a stuck-up mother joins a group of young sex freaks living freely like Bonobos. Free love ensues. A great idea! What could go wrong, right?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUnfortunately itu0026#39;s not enough to show cardboard characters hugging, and occasionally having all-out sex, to make an interesting movie. The shoehorned-in character development only makes it worse. The end result would have been acceptable as an oddball episode in some long- running TV drama-comedy series – but not as a feature film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEverything is substandard. Starting with the script, which is truly appalling. The directing is ho-hum at best. There is no vision. Shots are boring. Thereu0026#39;s too much repetition, not enough development. Just drab scenes punctuated by contrived plot twists.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe only real saving graces of the film are the actors and actresses – especially the two leading ladies – who do their best with what theyu0026#39;ve been given. Unfortunately the characters are stereotypes, the story is laughable, and their problems are perfectly contrived and predictable. The plot points are copy-pasted from some Guinness Book of Movie Clichés, and the dialogue feels wholly unnatural.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt would be hard for me to recommend this movie for most people, based on my personal experiences alone. But I must confess some people seemed to like it in the theater. Laughter ensued. Perhaps they had left their critical hats at the door. Thatu0026#39;s all fine. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLet us give the movie benefit of the doubt. While the script and the directing fall sadly short of acceptable, the movie has some charm and comedic value, and a few good performances. So it might be tolerable entertainment, completely devoid of deeper thought, for those poor souls not expecting much more than an OK one-liner – humans behaving like horny monkeys – extended to ridiculous lengths.”