TxMike I am always interested in why a movie is named the way it is, and this one comes from a simple line half-way through. The young boy is fretting over an extemporaneous talk he has to give at school, because he has straight A's and doesn't want to break that string. His reprobate uncle looks at him and says "Straight A's aren't everything in life."That reprobate uncle is Ryan Phillippe as Scott in a quite different role for him. He plays the younger brother that had left their home in Dallas some years earlier, no one knew where he was, and his older brother had married Scott's high school sweetheart and they now had a boy and a girl. Now, on Tuesday he comes riding up on a horse. As he explains his drivers license was revoked and riding a horse was a way to get around. He had come all the way from Memphis.The former high school sweetheart and now sister-in-law is Anna Paquin as Katherine . She is living the non-working Dallas (actually filmed in Bossier City, Louisiana) socialite life and is surprised when Scott shows up while her husband is out of town on business for the week.The husband, and brother of Scott, is Texan Luke Wilson as William . He has his own troubles, in the casino bar after a day on the job he confides to a friend that he is planning to get home and split up with Katherine. It just seems that the excitement has gone out of their marriage.The young son is Riley Thomas Stewart as Charles and the young daughter is Ursula Parker as Gracie . Young Ursula is a "natural", she was so good in her role, but I also found out she is an accomplished violinist at her young age. A quick youtube search on "Ursula parker violin" will generate a number of results, and worth the effort if you want to see how good she is. Really good! Anyway the story spans a week, from Tuesday to Monday of the next week. Lots of things come out, lots of things happen, and some healing is accomplished. I wouldn't consider this a great movie, but a pretty good one. I was impressed that Phillippe handled such a different role quite well and believably. In fact all the actors were fine. Including Powers Boothe as the old dad who seemed to be losing his mind gradually.SPOILERS: There is a telling scene where "Uncle" Scott is attending Charles's presentation and at the end he stands up, claps, and shouts "That's my boy." Katherine's reading of the deceased boys' mom clarified things. As it turns out Scott really was the father, the boy was born 9 months after Katherine last saw Scott before he disappeared, and then she began seeing William. She was pregnant when they got married, but neither of them considered it a "shotgun wedding" because they really were in love. Now they find Scott has been secretly suffering with a brain tumor, after he made reconciliation with his dad and brother, he died and the married couple reassured each other of their love.

in1984 Not even a hero riding in high on a horse can defeat this toad. There are traces of a smart idea behind this film, and the quality of cast indicates they managed to convince a few significant princes and princesses. Unfortunately, they all seem stuck inside the belly of a template Hollywood family film.Despite the title and the importance of a couple lively kid actors, the straight A student and school aspect is just a subplot seemingly forced in, a distraction from the main focus of the film, which is the adults.This review may be a little too harsh. I don't live in the Texas/Louisiana area where the film takes place, and it may be it's intended for that region specifically. It's definitely more educational than a Texas/Louisiana school, so it may seem like a revelation for parents and children alike in that area.

robdavis381 The movie was choppy in places and the ending "scene" was sloppily done. Otherwise it was a charming little movie devoid of violence and gore. I don't understand the R rating as all I saw was a few curses and one joint-smoking. This movie isn't something children would enjoy anyway; it's what years ago would've been marked as M for mature. One brother brings home a girl and the other brother ends up marrying her - then many moons later the story we see begins (as the poster already suggests). Ryan Phillipe and Anna Paquin were good in this movie; Luke Wilson seemed strained the whole time, though. I enjoyed the plot, the story and the locale. I don't watch Hallmark TV novellas so I don't know anything about them; this was a sweet trip through a nice story.

aGuiltySoul I rather enjoyed this film. It's too bad it seems to have been given a half hearted production. The film has so much going for it, but seems to have stopped short of what it would have taken to really make a go of it, namely, cohesion and a really good edit. There were some problems with continuity too. Was Scott gone 9 or 10 years because both were mentioned and it turns out to matter. Mr. Phillippe's Scott seemed to also have had a tattoo that came and went. It's those little things that show a lack of attention that reflect a failure of…what? Talent? Devotion? Funding? I don't know. But the end product is unpolished. In fact it plays better as a series of scenes than as one film. It tells the story of one family, William(Luke Wilson), his wife Katherine(Anna Paquin), and their two young children. The marriage is struggling. They have all the trappings of wealth and status but William is constantly away on business and Katherine is becoming robotic and cold, just going through the motions. The children are responding with eccentric behavior. Charles, for instance, wears a suit and carries a brief case to elementary school. There is also William's father(Powers Boothe) living nearby who has succumbed to Alzheimer's. But most importantly for this film, there is William's brother, Scott(Ryan Phillippe), who has been missing for some years but shows up one afternoon riding a horse onto the property. This film is classified as a comedy and it is funny, but in the old fashioned comedic method of amusing circumstances rather than manic behavior or convoluted plots. The comedic circumstances all center around the character of the prodigal brother, Scott. He is definitely the cuckoo in the nest of this buttoned down family. He drinks too much, smokes pot and has very little censor. He is utterly charming man, but immature and often inappropriate, especially in his vocabulary. He soon wins over the children and has Katherine struggling with feelings she once had for him. Scott has returned home at the request, he insists, of his dead mother who tells him he is needed. And except for total lack of conformity and his habit of lighting up a joint and/or a cigarette constantly as well as trying to drink the drink cabinet dry, he's not a bad house guest. However that's not how Katherine sees it, he's rather more spontaneous than she can tolerate. Yet we see that people are like moths to his flame, and Katherine is no more immune than her children. I found the acting really well done, not surprising given the cast, but the supporting cast doesn't lag behind either. (How they managed to cast a little girl who looks so much like she could be Anna Paquin's daughter I don't know.) The musical score added much to the atmosphere. I'm a big fan of well done musical scores. I've mentioned this is funny; I laughed out loud several times while watching it. I enjoyed this film. It's been a long time since I saw Ryan Phillippe act with child actors and I want to point out that he does it singularly well. Overall his portrayal of Scott drives the whole film. But I'd have liked this effort to be more than a direct to video pass off. It seems a betrayal of all the work and talent that went into it. And last but not least the ending is a really hackneyed cliché. Hate that.