Laurel Canyon (2003)

Young couple relocates to California from Cambridge for his medical residency, planning to stay at his mother’s empty home. Problem is that mom hasn’t vacated it because she’s behind on producing an album in her home-based studio. Though the son warns his fiancee away from his mother, she gets sucked into the excitement of a more free existence than she’s ever experienced.

I mean, I got it. The new is always appealing -- especially if you've always stayed in the lines -- and Frances McDormand as the record-producer is irresistible. But neither member of the young couple is at all sympathetic. He’s rigid and holding on to baggage and going way beyond flirting with a fellow resident and she’s suspicious and going way beyond flirting with both the lead singer of the band AND her fiance’s mom, while blocking any chance of moving out of the house by pretending she can’t find a suitable rental.

I didn’t care about them, so it was hard to care about their story.

C