Multiple Sarcasms (2010) Online

I was really looking forward to "Multiple Sarcasms". With a story about a man, basically at a mid-life crisis, who is looking for happiness in writing and in films, I thought I could really relate. But for a film about playwriting at its heart, it's rather poorly written. Many scenes telling us things that we already know. The first third of the film was introducing us to the main characters, over and over again. But I got everything I needed to know about the characters in the first scene so the rest just became a lesson in boredom.

It was supposed to be about Gabriel discovering that his happiness is rooted in writing, but then out of nowhere the main story became about crossing the line of infidelity. Not writing at all. Boredom, crossing into confusion just becomes frustration. Even with the many underrated actors, "Multiple Sarcasms" is not worth the frustration and boredom.

My wife and I just couldn't muster the energy and will to watch a movie about a man who has everything (wife, daughter and job), and is in a rather enviable position overall. And his problem is... well, we couldn't figure out. He's bored? Doesn't "like his life"? So, let's make a movie about it, shall we?

The premise to this movie is so preposterous, that his audience may be left completely unsympathetic to the main character, or even less sympathetic to the whole enterprise that made the movie possible.

The saving grace of this movie is the good directing - there's a pinch of comedy to give a genre direction to the movie, but apart that, the characters seem rather genuine. Sadly, the whole plot is stillborn and worthless.

This film examines an interesting aspect of life...friendship between men and women without sex or romance. It's something I personally relate to because my best friends are women (and most of them are also close friends of my wife.) It also is a very well written and well directed film. The lines are good and they are well delivered in a very natural and understated manner, almost as though the scenes were improv. The concept of the play within a play, certainly not an original dramatic device, is, nevertheless, done effectively. This wasn't a big buck film, either in its production costs or its box office. But I suspect the people who made it are motivated more by artistry than by avarice.

Another reviewer here characterized the whole premise of the movie as "preposterous". Obviously, that person has not known many people of wealth and privilege. I have personally known many people of great "success" and wealth who were not very happy. They may have fulfilled the "American Dream" of job, family, etc... but they did NOT feel contentment, fulfillment or joy. One recently committed suicide... a very well-off and talented guy.

So, it's not "preposterous" at all. It's quite common and very understandable since our values here are based almost completely on money -- which is only a tool and you can't purchase happiness, only distraction.

I just watched this movie and i must admit it wasn't brilliant but better then a lot of other movies.

The plot starts with a family seemingly happy but as you have already guessed nothing is as it seems. The guy is a thinker while the wife is not so much. Then blah blah blah and the guy writes a sarcastic play, leaves his wife, and finally gets together with his true soul mate.

Now a response to the previous review: A guy criticized that the plot makes us completely unsympathetic to the main character due to his ungratefulness to what he has(the happy family stuff). I agree that you shouldn't not leave a marriage in ruin like that but in order to achieve that you need to be on the same level of understanding with your partner. That doesn't mean that you always agree but it means he at least gets your "multiple sarcasm". Im not talking about intelligence here well maybe I am so what some people get it some don't that is just how it is.

Anyway not a bad movie but i think it dint reach the right audience.

Perfect example of a movie that should not be judged by the average rating it receives from viewers. People are apparently terrified of exploring their feelings, their decisions, or their lives if they rated this 4.6 out of 10. With no qualifiers, I give it a 10. Where & when can one explore one's self? Certainly not in schooljails where the teachers themselves are unlikely to have ever gotten to know themselves. Authenticity, the ability to be oneself, is totally lacking in this most vital institution where kids are supposed to get prepared for life. Here is a movie to help focus on the aspect of our lives that is left out of the curriculum--to question one's choices, to find meaning, to discover love, to learn from mistakes. Most people will not bother but will continue making the same mistakes over & over again. Bravo to the producers & everyone connected with this film for giving us something way above the standard fare. EXCEPTIONAL!

I thought this was a good movie all in all. The acting was good and so was the story line. It was a tale of a man who was trying to find himself and find happiness in his life, isn't this what we all are searching for in the end? The main character Gabe wanted to be a writer so he gave up everything to do this. I think sometimes people are over critical of movies and over analyze things...just sit back and enjoy the ride and try to find a moral to the story instead of finding all the flaws. because this is what is wrong with our society as a whole, we always look for the flaws. So i would definitely recommend this movie it was different from the mainstream blockbusters and had some deep meaning to it.

I guess it all depends on what one brings to a movie. If I were only going to watch this film once, I would miss most of it. On a film binge, long vacation, I watched 2 other films of other genres before I got to _Multiple Sarcasms_. I wouldn't classify it as a comedy and I got unsorted mush. I even stopped in the middle and went to bed. The next morning I decided to see it through. I will watch it again. Scenes of exceptional beauty, characters that are real, believable (uh, is this a movie or did I get into somebody else's head). Terms one learned at school, well, for example about theater -- for example, "vraisemblance" -- help to "defamiliarize the text". We may have seen movies with bits, tropes, business, cutting and editing like this before, but this one is still original, subtle, and inviting with sufficient refractions with stage and staging to place us both inside it and outside it. Very near the end of the film, the writer places himself as an actor on the stage, then also to one side as editor/actor critiquing the writer/actor. This was not over done. Life into stage or film is very strange and wonderful. There are characters playing the role of audience members whom we have gotten to know during the course of the film. The music was excellent, the scenes, the character development of supporting characters was fine (getting good and drunk with "Eric"). We could probe the messiness of the protagonist's life "as life" with the "vraisemblance" probe (Living out of a suitcase? His dwelling was no suitcase.) By the end of the film we have seen a man's life shuddering into chaos as he takes up writing, and the miracle of the process is that a beautiful coherence emerges. He has become more grounded, centered and real. The process works! I should write a play. This is pretty good film alchemy. India Ennenga's "Liz" was radiant.

A seemingly happy man with an unscratchable itch blunders in to a solution that is neither heroic nor mundane but nevertheless seems satisfyingly right in a very ordinary way. Without quite knowing what he knows that he has been battling with a conundrum his whole life, to find a solution he turns away from his life and decides he must write a play. He then finds himself describing his conundrum and the movie unfolds like a detective novel with odd clues dropped from time to time, as he traces the root of what's been bothering him. He finishes his play and better yet its production is financially rewarding, he's a made man and he does not have the itch any more. I gave the film an eight because even though the dialogue stank in parts, the Director still manages to convey a voice and evoke empathy and a sense of shared human experience.

Multiple Sarcasms Timothy Hutton gives a great performance of a man who is tired of his work and married life, and is driven to work out who he is by writing a play. It is a process that is riddled with angst, his creative self attempting to emerge in spite of the inevitable obstacles, in the form of his wife, who he fears "doesn't get him," to his guilt about striking out for himself in an authentic way as possibly harming his gifted and appealing daughter, his job as an architect, which ceases to satisfy him creatively. His unkempt, "just gotten out of bed" look, complete with five o'clock shadow, hair with a will of its own and rumpled clothes give a physical presence to his discontent and yearning for something more. At times, there are surrealistic scenes, reminiscent of "The Singing Detective," (which are inspired, and for me some of the best moments of the film) where he re-writes interactions that had painful ramifications for him, e.g. his argument with his wife while they were visiting her family for Christmas, and his well-intentioned but maladroit attempt to come to his daughter's aid during a crisis at school. The other actors give natural and resonant performances, including Dana Delany with her cool, porcelain sadness as his wife, and Mira Sorvino, the wise, funny and vulnerable best friend (an iconic representation of every man's "anima"), India Ennenga as the precocious and lovable daughter, and Mario Van Peebles, playing against his usual type, as his gay friend (he gives a monologue that is so effective that it would be a good audition piece). Stockard Channing was perfectly cast as the agent, industry and worldly-wise, funny and charming. It is an ode to Manhattan as well as a right-brained, intuitive look into a man's struggle to become his authentic self through self-expression. At times he appears childlike, selfish, depressed, even crazed, and yet he is doing what he has to do to make life bearable. This brave gem of a film presents a classic view of the struggle of a creative person, highs, lows, absurdity and revelations. The images captured by his daughter and superimposed with artfully free cursive reminded me of some of the work of Corita Kent, projected into a new medium, for a new century. The music was well-chosen, beautifully performed, fit the narrative and emphasized the emotion and themes.

You have to make yourself watch this flick! The promotional description/summary here on IMDb certainly makes this story sound far more interesting than this movie can ever be.

It's the usual NYC setting with beautiful people in successful jobs but - oh my - the waters run deep and dark and the characters are way too introspective. Still wanting to be young and free Gabriel suddenly realizes he's in a stale marriage and has a child and he wants to be a writer. So he looks and acts like an old wino through 93% of the movie.

This type of story has 'been so done'! This flick starts sinking within the first 15 to 20 minutes - whenever you suddenly realize where this story is going. And there's the happy happy ending.

What this film was really missing was a real turnout to explain a playwright's boredom with all the good things he couldn't enjoy. Or a real, Allen-like neurosis (but that is overdone), perhaps of the psycho kind.

Unfortunately, the intelligent dialog and the good cast can't really make it memorable. From the way the story is told, the viewer becomes unsympathetic towards the main character (and it's nothing wrong with that), but the latter's motivation is thin at best, and that's wrong and makes him a spoiled whining nerd. Which most real writers and real men aren't - hopefully.

Well, it's disappointing, but it still might win an award, the Have a Great Cast and Dialog and Still Ruin the Film award.