The Giving Tree

This film needs to be re-cut (and perhaps retitled yet again) with a completely new soundtrack. I could have made a better soundtrack to this film with some dental floss and a fork. The non-musical elements of this movie are not without merit, yet the soundtrack biases the entire film for the viewer. Its syrupy sentimentality makes the viewer feel forced into emotions that would easily be achieved otherwise.

The dialogue isn't terrible, the acting is a little better, and the pretty cinematography on top of a sunny mountain in California is actually pretty good. The plot is a kind of hybrid of several tired Hollywood stories, but there are enough quirky (some might say needlessly random) elements to hold interest.

In the end though, it's Christina Applegate's mesmerizing one-scene (and a flashback) performance truly makes the whole movie worth watching.