Sweet November review:

Okay here is the nitty-gritty on this movie without giving any details away. 

Inasmuch as I completely adore Keanu and everything about him, 

I have to say I didn't really enjoy the movie, partially due to him, Charlize, 

the shallow script and then the director.

Keanu was playing the part of Nelson Moss a cutthroat, egotistical ad-executive, 

detached from his emotions and with a set goal in his life

---make money lots of it. 

Okay, but we already know Keanu can be cold, numb and distant in his roles...

not a complaint that's just him. That is how he made Neo a very awesome character. 

It is him without any acting, but he looked like he was trying so hard to act the 

part when he should have just been him self. Like he was uneasy and unsettled 

in the role, could it be the effect of that leading lady???

Then, to hear him mutter ‘I love you’ after seeing him act so 

cold and distressed, and uncomfortable just didn't quite cut it 

for me. At a point you start to ask yourself when did this 

love develop, when did he reconsider, and when did she 

expose him to his shelved emotions to feel a thumping heart? 

Charlize looked like she was trying too hard to be carefree, spunky, 

vivacious and at last falling to a hopelessly in love helpless female 

in so short a time frame. Her manner of approaching "Sarah" was somewhat 

missing an ingredient that is needed in every movie: plausibility. 

Then, comes the matter of the impossible script. I actually just saw the 

original a few months ago so I had high expectations for this one. 

The original was funny, witty, and a major tearjerker. 

Sarah was an empathetic, gentle soul, and harmless 

(if that's the correct word) and Nelson was a hilarious workaholic 

who despite his shrewd business acumen he still kept his sense of 

humor showing signs of a heart hidden behind his reckless demeanor.  

In addition, they wrote each other poems, 

and little love notes all through the 30 days of November, 

that way it let us into their hearts and their thoughts, 

telling us when and what caused them to fall for each other. 

The 2000 version is stripped of all this sentimentality, 

having faint humor, no plausibility (the spontaneous manner 

in which Nelson, an insightful, methodical businessman, 

is so easily lured into stealing dogs from a shelter at 

night shows that somewhere along the line the scriptwriter lost 

sight of some important set-ups) and a desperate leap for pathos 

from characters who had failed to be built up within the first 

half hour or more of the movie.. 

Keanu's Norm showed no signs of having a heart hidden 

behind his heart at any point whatsoever; he was just he, 

an overly ambitious young man.

That was it, people that determined to make money don’t turn 

around within 30 days or less, it would have to take 

a life-threatening turn of events to get them to compromise their ideals 

and goals and fall for the simple lowly lifestyle that has been 

completely stripped of all glamour, and losing their 

jobs and their cars cannot be considered as such deterrents. 

Keanu might not have been happy with his work, 

I don't know, but I can only recommend this movie for diehard Keanu 

fans, no one else can bear it or believe it, to want to watch it several 

times over. His acting in movies like The Gift and Matrix told us 

more about him, much more than this movie did.
 

All right, I hope I haven't butchered the movie too much, but I had to say the 

truth. As a fan, I think I owe him some constructive criticism.

Overall: Charlize lights up a movie by reliving an aged theory that we only always happen to fall in love with someone who is dying. I wonder why?