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April 17, 2007

Movie Review

Adam Brody movie not worth seeing

There’s a big, weird reason why you should avoid In the Land of Women that I’d love to tell you about, but it would ruin the movie

Story by: Anthony Williams

The Shorthorn Scene editor

Courtesy art

Adam Brody stars as Carter Webb in Jonathan Kasdan’s In the Land of Women, a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

There’s a big, weird reason why you should avoid In the Land of Women that I’d love to tell you about, but it would ruin the movie.

Even though it’s a mess already.

Adam Brody leaves his character Seth of “The O.C.” behind, unscathed, to become Carter Webb. Brody himself has said this character is more like Ryan from “The O.C.,” listening as opposed to speaking. While Seth was fluent in sarcasm, Carter is more the pondering type.

That parallel jumps out early in the movie, where Webb moves in with his ill grandmother (Olympia Dukakis) in Michigan to escape L.A. after his girlfriend dumps him. There he finds himself sucked into the drama of the family across the street. And wouldn’t you know it, while they reach out to him in his depression, he ends up helping them.

So there are subtle Newport connections, but later actions flip the script and throw the audience off. Director Jonathan Kasdan hopes for that, but as the movie winds down, very little understanding or pleasure gets through.

Kasdan may have created the acclaimed “Freaks and Geeks,” but Women should be stuffed in a locker quickly.