Welcome to the Rileys is an emotional journey that takes us through grief, self-reinvention and healing. The Rileys have been struggling in their marriage since losing their teenage daughter eight years prior. Once a happily married and loving couple, Lois (Melissa Leo) and Doug (James Gandolfini) have grown distant. Lois has become agoraphobic and won't leave the house while Doug tries to stay away, finding their home depressing.Looking to get away, Doug goes on a business trip to New Orleans. He meets Mallory (Kristen Stewart), a teenage runaway. Despite her unsettling... demeanor, Doug immediately recognizes an innocence in Mallory. He realizes she is in desperate need of paternal guidance, something he has been longing to provide. The opportunity to care and protect Mallory supplants the void Doug's marriage has left in his heart, and brings new meaning to his life. Doug decides to sell his business and stay in New Orleans to give Mallory the attention and help she can't bring herself to ask for.Lois overcomes her phobia and ventures to New Orleans to reclaim her marriage. What initially seems to be the final straw that will derail their marriage turns out to be the inspiration for Lois and Doug to renew their love for each other. From Scott Free and Argonaut Pictures comes an unusual story of love lost and found. [show more]
This film is really, really good
Maybe I had an advantage in watching this film in that I hadn't yet seen the Sopranos so wasn't overly aware of James Gandolfini, he really is superb in this film though, a millions miles from Tony Soprano.
Here he plays a businessman on a trip to new Orleans to get away from his troubled home life and his wife played by Melissa Leo. He meets Kristen Stewarts character a stipper and tries to become somewhat of a father figure and help who through her troubled life, perhaps trying to account for what he has so far been unable to fix back home. Fortunately for him, Leo's character is quite ready to give up on the marriage yet and after more turns and twists its left to the films final 30 or so to see if the films 3 leads can find some sort of fresh start again.
What I really enjoyed about this film is it doesn't go down the same route a lot of Hollywood films do, specifically what you might think when you first meet Gandolfini's character.
Reading interviews with Mr Gandolfini since his death, its clear how highly he rates Kristen Stewart and she really is miles away from the twilight saga here, such a great performance from her, more like this and she surely wont be pigeon holed or type cast.
This film comes highly recommended
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Jake Scott directs this indie drama starring James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart. Middle-aged businessman Doug (Gandolfini) has led a life of quiet desperation since the death of his daughter eight years ago, and the subsequent withdrawal from life of his severely depressed wife, Lois (Melissa Leo). While attending a conference in New Orleans, Doug makes a fumbled attempt to heal his own broken heart by engaging with the problems of troubled teenage runaway Mallory (Stewart).
Ever since the death of their daughter Emily, Doug (Gandolfini) and Lois Riley (Leo) have been drifting apart. As Lois wrestles with a suffocating sense of guilt over her daughter's death, Doug copes by entering into an affair with Vivian, a local waitress. Lately, Lois hasn't even been able to muster the courage to venture outside, summoning hairdressers to her home in order to maintain appearances and communicating with few people other than her sister Harriet and the local pastor. When Vivian dies and Doug finds himself in a Baton Rouge strip club during a business trip, he realizes he's come to a dangerous crossroads in life.
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