This would have been a good moment to remember any of the good things that Bart had done for her during the series note some examples include the two of them throwing the hockey game where they're pitted against each other on "Lisa on Ice" (not to mention the good memories from that episode that led them to throw the game), Bart taking the fall for Lisa when she steals the teacher's editions in "Separate Vocations," Bart telling Lisa she's not ugly and helping her walk in high heels on "Lisa the Beauty Queen," Bart standing up to Nelson when Nelson steals Lisa's cupcakes for Mrs. Aesop Amnesia: On the final act, Lisa declares that if she can remember three good acts that Bart had ever done for her, she would remove the restraining order.Additionally, the park ranger joins in with Bart and the other kids in laughing at Lisa's misfortune. Adults Are Useless: Homer and Marge could easily have overturned Lisa's restraining order and Judge Harm was incredibly unprofessional and unethical by increasing the restraining order just because Bart insulted her.Meanwhile Homer becomes a greeter of a Walmart-esque department store known for treating the workers like dirt and selling shoddy items. Go see it anyway- support the growth of these folks! I gave this an encouraging 8 out of 10.Lisa files a restraining order against Bart after years of putting up with his antics. The ill-fitting chunks weren't their fault- they were just an artifact of the awkward and 'green' directorial efforts. Oh, the cast was great, and they obviously did everything they were asked to do, and they did it very well. That's what 'Clear Day' is like- a quilt whose individual pieces are great, showing bright and future success, but not put together very well, showing immaturity and a student just beginning to blossom. This student work shows genius and promise, both undelivered as of now. And then imagine this future master's last 'student' project, when she was 17 years old or so, before the magic clicked and she got great. Imagine a master-to-be quilt maker a quilt making artist whose work will be celebrated in the UK and America, and featured on PBS and BBC documentaries and featured in museums, etc. 'On A Clear Day' made me think of quilt makers. Young, in their careers anyway, regardless of their actual calendar year age, but very talented. That is, this movie resembled a good student-like product from young and promising film makers. If they are young, or young-ish, this effort might bode well. I looked up the director and the writer online, and didn't find much. Overall, this is a pleasant movie- but it isn't a great one. These had neither a start, nor a finish- we simply saw one brief middle, as it were. Without discussing plot details, let me breezily mention the parts with Chan, the Chinese chippy guy, for example. Worse, those orphaned parts were never really stitched up as themselves- i.e., they never really completed themselves, nor made any real sense in and of themselves. Sure, we could accept a bit of non-convention, and even artiness, but some of the elements of this story never were stitched together with any other parts of the movie. But we do need some sense, anyway, of what various expositions mean. Many of the threads of the story simply go nowhere- not that we necessarily need a big plot-ish conclusion to everything. Some of the weaknesses, however, are how all of the individual components of the writer and director's vision are executed. It may be said this is a character driven movie, perhaps? And, all of the cast do a commendable job of providing us with the characters' humanity and depth. The camera lingers, the dialogue is written to enlighten us about the emotions (pleasant as well as despairing) of the characters. Another strength is the reliance on the humans, and their real-world behaviors, fears, and hopes (etc.) for the 'current' flow of the movie. It seems obvious that the writer and director had visions of something deep, meaningful, as well as entertaining. Some of the strengths are its attempt to tell a 'real' story, without recourse to shtick, cliché, or pop-star trickery so common on TV and in movies these days.
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