Welcome to the Riley's

Welcome to the Riley's was surprisingly good.  Despite having two award winning actors, James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) and Melissa Leo (The Fighter), in the film, I thought Kristen Stewart (The Twilight saga) would bring it down.  Welcome to the Riley’s was a drama I liked because it taught the lesson that no matter how hard we try to change someone, some people just can not change.  But it doesn’t mean that we didn’t touch them in anyway.

Doug and Lois Riley (Leo and Gandolfini) have grown apart since their 15 year old daughter died ten years before in a car accident.  Lois is hasn’t left the house since then, and continues living her life inside her home.  Her hair dresser comes to her, and she leaves even getting the mail up to Doug.  Doug reacts differently, carrying on with his life and his plumbing supply business, but he’s having an affair.  At a conference in New Orleans, Doug meets Mallory (Stewart) a 22 year old stripper who he later finds out is a 16 year old runaway.  Having a special connection with Mallory, which is related to the loss of his daughter, he decides to sell the company and extend his visit.  He offers Mallory $100 a day to let him stay in her home.  He immediately goes into fatherly mode, fixing up her place and picking her up at random motels, where she often goes after leaving the strip club with random men.

    The news of her husband staying in New Orleans is shocking to Lois, so much so that she leaves her house after a decade and drives to find her husband.  After first running away once she finds out what he husband has been up to, she warms up to Mallory and takes her in as her own.  She helps her with female issues, even going bra shopping with her.  Lois and Mallory share secrets with each other, helping the audience to understand the characters better.

Stewart actually plays a pretty convincing troubled teen.  There were times, however, when the awkward Bella Swan came out in her dialog, just with a few f bombs in her sentence, but all in all, it was a pretty good performance.  Mallory was more independent and less whiny than Bella.  She was a strong woman, despite some bad choices she made.  This was probably one of Stewart’s better characters.  There were a few scenes that showed Stewart’s ass that I could have gone without, but at least she’s willing to show the audience that she can do grown up roles as well and be convincing about it.

I liked Welcome to the Riley’s because I like trying to help people.  I’m always getting in relationships with the wrong people in hopes that I can fix them.  This film showed me that we can’t fix those that don’t want to be fixed, and sometimes the only people that need fixing is ourselves.  Don’t let your hated or dislike for Kristen Stewart get in the way of seeing this movie.  I promise you, it is time well spent.