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Standing Still

[2006, Movie]

Standing Still: Review

Standing in the middle of life: Melissa Sagemiller, Amy Adams, Adam Garcia and Aaron Standford

A group of college friends reunite four years after graduation for a weekend wedding in Los Angeles and find that their lives have developed in different and sometimes unexpected directions in this comedy-drama. Stockbroker Michael (Adam Garcia) and interior decorator Elise (Amy Adams) are the happy couple whose impending nuptials spark dissention between Rich (Aaron Stanford) and Sam (Melissa Sagemiller), who've been together just as long but aren't one step closer to the altar than they were in their senior year. Sam wants to take their relationship to the next step, but Rich is fixated on his first gray hair and the conviction that people just get married because they think that's what they're supposed to do. Screwed-up Lana (Mena Suvari) is in therapy, and her old boyfriend Sam (Jon Abrahams) — known to all as "Pockets" for his uncanny ability to produce whatever anyone needs from somewhere in his clothing — is returning from Thailand, where he's been promoting ultimate-fighting events. Quentin (Colin Hanks, son of Tom Hanks) has become a successful agent. Simon (James Van Der Beek) is on his way back from Mexico, where he and notoriously debauched director Franklin Bauner (Roger Avary) have been raising hell while supposedly scouting locations for a "metaphysical Western." And Jennifer (Lauren German), Elise's roommate when she briefly attended a different school, has just flown in from London, where she works in the music business. The surprise arrivals of the weekend are Michael's estranged father, Jonathan (Xander Berkeley); entrepreneur Donovan Parker (Ethan Embry), who's made his fortune pitching motivational exercise/educational tapes to outcast children and has a crush on Lana; Elise's hot-to-trot younger sister, Sarah (Marne Patterson); and sundry hookers and strippers. Alcohol is consumed in immoderate quantities, Simon takes the guys to Las Vegas on a studio jet, the girls dish and dance at home, and variations on the usual secrets and lies bubble to the surface. Screenwriters Matthew Perniciaro and Timm Sharp round up all the cliches of restless, privileged twentysomethings trying to make sense of their lives, but the efforts of an attractive and accomplished cast ensure that director Matthew Cole Weiss' feature debut is neither as dull nor as insufferably smug as it could easily have been. --Maitland McDonagh