Sundance. Expired.

"Just saw what might well be this Sundance's Me and You and Everyone We Know," wrote David Poland the other day. "It's called Expired..."

"Expired isn't a love story, no matter what anybody says - unless, of course, that person is also saying that The Shining is a love story. In which case, run." Praise for the leads, Samantha Morton and Jason Patric, as well as for "wonderful turns from Illeana Douglas, as Claire's neighbor and victim of Jay's wrath, and Teri Garr, as Claire's stroke-stricken mother," follows. Zoom In's Annie Frisbie likes this one.

But Glenn Kenny pronounces it "an hour and fifty-three minutes of 'close, but no cigar.'"

"To her credit, filmmaker Cecilia Miniucchi does not manipulate heartstrings or resort to generic conventions to serve up a touchy-feely love tale," writes Duane Byrge for the Hollywood Reporter. "Expired is a remarkable romance of no easy answers; to wit, like real life."

Updates, 1/29: Bryan Whitefield at ScreenGrab: "I can honestly say I probably haven't laughed as hard in a movie theater since Napoleon Dynamite."

Tom Hall: "Jason Patric's performance as Jay in Cecilia Miniucchi's inspired romantic comedy Expired is perfection; the über-asshole to end all assholes."

Coverage of the coverage: The Park City Index.

Posted by dwhudson at January 22, 2007 3:41 PM