Best Man Down

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Luke W Oct 29, 2017 Minnesotans Scott (Justin Long) and his bride Kristen (Jess Weixler) are having their wedding in Phoenix. During the wedding, Kristin is put off by the obnoxious behavior of Scott's best man Lumpy (Tyler Labine). Lumpy gets extremely drunk and more annoying to the guests until he is cut off from the bar by Scott. Returning to his hotel room, Lumpy continues drinking and carrying on until he accidentally falls and cracks his skull before passing out. He awakens a short time later disoriented and bleeding, and gets himself locked out of the hotel. Wandering into the brush, Lumpy passes out and dies on top of a cactus. He is found the next morning and Scott and Kristen are informed. Since Lumpy was his best friend, Scott feels it is his duty to arrange for Lumpy to be returned to Minnesota for a funeral. Kristen is upset that her honeymoon will be postponed but she supports Scott in his decision. After arranging transport for the body, they return to Minneapolis to contact Lumpy's friends and plan the funeral. Meanwhile, in a small town in Northern Minnesota we are introduced to Ramsey Anderson (Addison Timlin), a fifteen-year-old girl living with her mom (Frances O'Connor) and her mom's boyfriend (Evan Jones). Her mom is a drug addict with a history of moving around, and her mom's boyfriend is a former soldier who has turned to cooking meth to make money. Ramsey catches the local priest (Michael Landes) with another man in his home and tacitly blackmails him out of $50, which she uses to purchase groceries for their house. Later on, she deliberately allows herself to be caught shoplifting cold medicine so that she wouldn't have to supply it to her mom's boyfriend and is bailed out by the same priest.Kristen and Scott find Ramsey's name in Lumpy's phone and try to contact her but she doesn't answer. They visit his old law school and job to try to locate Ramsey but discover that Lumpy suddenly quit school and was fired from his job for embezzling tips from the bar. The bar manager tells them that Lumpy was involved with some girl, whom they deduce to be Ramsey. After an uncomfortable argument at Christmas dinner, Kristen pushes Scott to drive up to Ramsey's town and find her... How many romcoms haven´t been produced the past years that are more or less the same. Same setup, same ending and no real surprises. When I red the DVD back cover of "Best Man Down" I wasn´t sure that this would be that different and I am not a real fan of Justin Long. However, I do like Addison Timlin and there was something about the film that seemed intriguing no matter what. I did buy it and low and behold I did get something different in the genre. I reckon I was expecting the normal romcom comedy routine, but we only sort of see that in the beginning of the film. As soon as Lumpy has passed away, the film turns into an compelling, emotional strong and partly dark drama with a focus on death, friendship and the bigger meaning of it and how you might take people for granted and who they are. The characters feels authentic and believable and I reckon Addison Timlin is doing one of her best roles so far and her touching performance is beautiful to watch. And I also enjoyed that the movie was set in Minnesota. See more

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Best Man Down

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