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The quick description blurb for this film (on the Amazon Instant Video page for it) describes this film shortly as:
"Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell, and Olivia Wilde star as unlikely rivals who will do whatever it takes to beat the competition in this quirky and outrageous comedy about love, sex, winning, and most of all, butter."
If that was the only thing I knew about this film, then I must admit that I'd really probably be inclined to just look right past it.
Thankfully and luckily, I saw a write-up noting that the Blu-ray release for this film had been scheduled over on another site that I frequent that provides a lot of information on HighDef video releases (in Digest format). When I saw the list of stars and read the description of the film that was there, my interest was piqued despite the thought that I'd be watching a movie that was "only about butter carving". Hah! Only about butter carving, as if.
This film is about so much more and really I'd love to sit and try to describe it all in detail but at the same time I really don't want to spoil this film at all as I think it deserves to be seen without having been ruined in advance. Spoiled Butter just wouldn't satisfy ;-)
Jennifer Garner would seem to be the main star here and she does take home top billing, but by the end of the film you'll be thinking that this film was much more the sum of the parts rather than just one individual star. Garner's Laura Pickler character has designs on riding out her "First lady of butter carving" status to get to the upper stratosphere of society. Surely she can parlay her husband's (Ty Burrell's Bob Pickler) championship status into greater things, with the couple's "Camp Butter" being just the beginning. As we're inroduced to both characters we're probably thinking that this all has to be a joke and that no one would ever place such importance on contests like what we're shown here, and yet, like Punkin Chunkin and the attention it gathers each year we should probably quickly remember that what people find entertaining in one area isn't necessarily what others will find so entertaining.
The bigger story here unfolds as Bob Pickler finds himself pushed into retirement after many years of being the Johnson County and state wide butter carving champion. Seeing the end of her husband's popularity and status, Laura Pickler decides to (eventually) take matters into her own hands. Along the way though, the Pickler's both push each other into doing things that provide quite a bit of entertainment for us and quite a bit of possible future problems for each. It's in this area we get to meet Olivia Wilde's Brooke who seems as singularly focused as the paperboy in the old John Cusack's
Better Off Dead
.
We also get introduced to a precious young child named Destiny as she is shuttled from foster home to foster home before eventually landing with Ethan and Julie (Rob Corddry and, to me, a barely recognizable Alicia Silverstone -- a few times along the way I saw the much younger Alicia Silverstone look, but mostly she seemed to be someone that has left behind the looks of her youth for a more serious image).
All of these characters eventually cross paths in ways that make this movie a charming and complete surprise and offer up those loads of entertainment that I speak of in the review title here. Not be left out are roles by Hugh Jackman and Ashley Green that add in a few more surprises and laughs.
By the end of this film though, the laughs are perhaps pushed aside a bit to offer viewers quite a bit of warmth and tenderness.
The film carries an R rating for language and sexual content. Viewing with teens would probably work for most modern families, though persons that are more easily offended by language and sexual content would obviously want to avoid this film. Personally, I wouldn't consider showing this to anyone younger than a teen, at least not without being selective about what scenes are shown and which are censored out.
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Top reviews from other countries
Claudia Landwehrt
A black comedy all the way though
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2013
