Customer Reviews

The Poker House

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

 

 

This is the kind of movie that you are still thinking about when you wake up the next day. It is funny and sad at the same time. It is very inspiring because it is based on Lori Petty's life. The movie is far better than most of the junk that is release in the theaters. You won't be disappointed with it.

This movie is Antoine Fisher for girls. It reminds me of Boys Don't Cry in depicting how scary poverty in America is. It's about being born into an unlucky childhood where a bad mother can really destroy you. I have no idea whether this is a true story but it's nice to believe that the main character ultimately survives. This is a much better movie than White Oleander. This movie is made scarier for being set in the 1970s. Also, the lead actress looks like both Maggie Cheung and Hoku. She's lovely to look at and the two little girls who play her sisters are adorable. The Clarke Peters cameo was a treat and the soundtrack is terrific.

Not what I expected. The actress who portrays Lori and the actresses who play her sisters are very watchable. Sad movie but very, very interesting. I commend Lori for rising above her circumstances.

All the actors, and Lori, have done a fabulous job with this film. Quite a moving and impressive piece of work, not to mention a commentary on what the human spirit can endure!

Good story, Chloe Moretz was very good in this, as she is in all her movies. Had good story about oldest sister and her life

It was only satisfying, only because actress Chloe Grace Mertz
pretty much caries the movie. Selma Blair, gave an worthy performance, but not enough to have notice in the film. The filmed gives us a slow start, and look at the reality of a young girl, and her sister,d fighting to survive an abusive home. Thier mother, who's spiraling downward continuously, from the
,the heavy use of drugs. But a great thing happens that I enjoyed, Agnes, the older sister steps up and assumes responsibility for her two younger sisters. As the film tuggs along, Agnes realizes her mother
is so strung out on drugs, she looses the mind set to care for her two daughters. But Agnes picks up the
prices by getting things back in order to care for herself and two you.nger sisters.

Frankly, I was disappointed in this movie. We see a day in the life of a girl living in horrible conditions, one who is a talented basketball player, but we see nothing of what she did to better herself or how she did it. All of Charles Dickens's or Horatio Alger's characters grew up in situations just as bad as Agnes. But, their stories are really about how the boys or girls managed to better their situation to become successful as adults. There is none of that in this movie other than a little statement at the end that says Agnes grew up to write and direct the movie. I felt that this was the first of a trilogy of movies, with the second - her struggle to overcome her situation and to be accepted as an honorable person - and the third - what she has done to become successful as an adult - missing.

I might add that we have had over 150 kids stay with us over the years, and quite a few were from situations quite similar to that of Agnes, including children of prostitutes. Both my father and grandfather were 'slumlords' in Detroit and Atlanta, and we got to know many children from horrible situations. But, they knew that we loved each one and that we treated them with dignity. The kids would run to my grandfather and he'd hug them like he did his own grandchildren. I remember one seven-year-old girl who one time jumped into my arms with a ragged dress and panties so dirty they left my clothes smelling. But, how could I help but give such an eager little soul a hug and tell her she was very special? Most of the kids were satisfied to stay in the slums, but every once in a while one would stand out - we called them 'superkids' - and seek us out for mentoring. Many are now successful adults.

I've never heard of one of those 'at risk' children who became a successful adult who did not have at least one adult in his or her life who challenged and encouraged them. We see none of this in this movie. Is the writer saying that she became successful without any outside encouragement? Without seeing some evidence of how she overcame her circumstances, just following a typical day in the life of a girl growing up in horrible circumstances is ultimately unsatisfying.