Customer Reviews

Closing Escrow

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I happened to catch this movie last night on high-definition cable. Having never heard of it (and not knowing about it's premise), I thought I'd watch a little bit, as my wife and I are saving up to buy a home of our own, and it seemed that there might be some insight to be gleaned by viewing it. I quickly realized, however, that this was a farcical mockumentary in the style of "Best In Show", "A Mighty Wind", and "Spinal Tap" (this film, "Closing Escrow", has no cast or crew in common with those movies, as far as I know).

Although the writing isn't as snappy as its predecessors, it's still quite good, with a couple well-written and acted characters. The journey of 3 completely different couples looking for their perfect home, each with the "help" of their own quirky realtor, all eventually converging on the same home in the finale, is equal parts hilarity, weirdness, and almost-went-somewhere gags.

This is one of those films that will most likely have a cult following among realtors and others in the home-buying biz; for the rest, this is probably a good week-night rental.

This is the kind of movie that as you are watching it, you start to realize the humor in even the most subtle ways. You don't need to have gone through a home purchase to have fun watching this one. Just sit back and enjoy the crazy scenario of each home buying couple and their strange realtors as they unfold.

If you HAVE gone through the purchase of buying home, it will probaby conjure up a number of funny moments from your own experiences.

Definitely check this one out.

I thought the movie rated well; however, I was psyched out to see some of the Christopher Guest cast in this "mockumentary," but none of the Guest cast showed up, and I could see each one of them in the different roles. Imagine seeing Fred Willard as a Real Estate Agent with a chain saw...etc.

Anyway, kudos to the wonderful job the writers, producers, directors and actors did. Everyone did a supurb job, and I hope to see these producers do some more mockumentaries in the future. It seems as if they have their own cast, so I will be looking forward to seeing them in the future. You give Guest and cast a good run for the money. Thanks for the great entertainment on the fourth of July weekend.

This was a very well done independent film with a great cast of very talented actors. I enjoyed every minute of it!

If you don't think this is funny, then you are not in the real estate business. Anyone who works in the real estate world will laugh until tears pour out your eyes. And if you think the things that happen in this movie are far fetched, they are pretty much what agents deal with on a day to day basis.

If I could give it a 10 I would!

The All-American dream of home ownership comes in for some gentle ribbing in "Closing Escrow," a pseudo-documentary written and directed by Armen Kaprelian and Kent G. Llewellyn. The film follows three quirky couples and their equally zany realtors as they endure the trials and tribulations of buying and selling a home.

In all honesty, it takes awhile for "Closing Escrow" to work its way into the audience`s affections. The humor, in the early stages, comes across as overly broad and arch, and the movie feels too derivative of all those Christopher Guest films like "Waiting For Guffman," "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind" to be entirely original. Yet, long about the midway point of the story, the concept begins to pay off and the movie glides smoothly to its conclusion. Moreover, the actors elevate the humor with their marvelously deadpan performances and impeccable sense of timing.

"Closing Escrow" is no barnburner of a comedy, but it does succeed in providing us with a decent number of good-hearted and good-natured laughs by the time it's over - not too shabby an accomplishment for any comedy these days.

One of the funniest, quirkiest "real life" type movies I've seen in a long time-It takes a while to really get moving but when it does the humor really pays off-April Barnett and Cedric Yarborough-Tamika and Bobby especially had me in stitches! Highly recommended.

This movie tries to take Christopher Guest's "Spinal Tap" approach. Like the Guest movies, and like the TV series "The Office," it assumes an unseen camera crew following people around, recording both their responses to direct interview questions, and some of their routine, unself-conscious moments. It tries to capture the eccentricities of its subjects - instances of their foolish self-involvement and their obtuse conversations.

Here the target of that hypothetical camera crew is not a rock group or a group of show dog owners. It's three couples out house-hunting with their three real estate agents.

However this film ups the ante on the Guest format a little too high. Some of its characters are too outrageously eccentric. For example, there's the agent who trashes the houses he shows his couple - in order to get the prices down. Besides being bizarrely criminal, it's not clear how this tactic could help his clients. If they don't buy the trashed house, a lower price isn't going to help them. And if they do buy it, they'll be faced with all the expense of repairing it.

Then there's the strange back-story attached to one of the house-hunting wives. We hear how she won the mild, pliable man sitting besides her by stalking him and winning him away from his previous wife and children. She did this with a persistence of more-than-wacky intrusions, including setting his lawn on fire, and leaving a series of dead rabbits on his doorstep. Somehow, these tactics convinced him of her sincere admiration and eventually won him over.

So whereas in his spoofs, Guest edited together people's possible quirks - this director/writer and his partially improvising actors create unlikely quirks from whole cloth.

However, there is still something amusing, memorable, and affirming about this movie. In the bonus materials, it's revealed that because of religious scruples, the Director strictly forbade any cursing on the set. The actors had to curtail their usual raunchy rages. And somehow, this policy seems to have visibly worked to the film's advantage. There's an essential atmosphere of wide-eyed innocence about all these goofy proceedings that gives the viewer an entertaining respite from strict realism.

Then too, the viewer gets the vicarious experience of being shown a variety of interesting properties - from lofts to suburban ranch-styles. You get to go house-hunting - the ultimate shopping spree. And you get to settle in, without having had to pay a dime in commission fees.

This was a simply produced film with some genuinely enjoyable comic performances. It's no Schindler's List, but fits comfortably in the mockumentary genre typified by the Guest-produced classic "Waiting for Guffman." There are hints of "Guffman" quiet looniness and some of the broad performances elicited more than a few laugh out loud responses. It's well worth a look for fans of the genre.

I'll steal that term from someone else because that's exactly what this is. Ok, I found it funny, but not everyone else will. The humor is dark and quick and sometimes flies past so fast you almost miss it. The details are where this little indie film shines. The over the top blond who pretends to be sensitive to racism is the best developed character of the three real estate agents we see trying to sell homes to three comedically staged couples. If you have ever house shopped, some of this will ring true. A good use of 90 minutes, and better than many big budget "comedies."