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Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Why did I rent this DVD? Well, I was driving down the road a couple months ago and decided to Google up my childhood best friend from when I was 11-12.... Eric Byler. I had tried to find him a few years back to no avail. You'll notice in the movie that Cody Chestnutt has a Little League patch on one shoulder and Lori (I believe) wears a baseball shirt at one point. That's no accident, as Eric was our #1 pitcher and we may have made it to the world series if he had not broken his finger in practice after we won the VA state title. To think that our team picture was on the cover of a phone book back in 1984... crazy! I visited him in Hawaii in 1986 and lost touch afterwords and remember his discussions of how the locals there treated him differently as a 'Hapa' (Eric's mother is full blood Asian, although she grew up in the same neighborhood with his father in the U.S.) Anyway, it is no surprise to me that Eric went into writing and directing. He was a very interesting and creative kid and I still have some of his cartoons and a fond memory of the Purple Flower Joke.As for the film, I can't give it extremely high marks, but it is very well made. See it if you want a different type of love story. My favorite low budget film is probably Blood Simple, which had both a love triangle and murder theme. The background music was really well done in that film and I give Eric very high marks for his scoring of CS.

Not your slam bang big budget action film by any means. If you're looking for a recent exemplar of the well crafted, low budget, independent film, this is it. It's the kind of film you might want to see by yourself so that there's no chance for comment or interruption. The characters gradually emerge, the plot thickens, and you're with it all the way. What a talented group of actors this is and the direction and cinematography are absolutely fascinating. My only complaints are that the music is sometime intrusive, disruptive and the tennis match is a little trite -- small criticisms for what is otherwise a really nice movie.

Charlotte Sometimes can be hard to watch at times because it feels like very little is happening. What I like about the movie is that there are moments when you can feel complete empathy with the characters, even though they do not always express their emotions in words. Through pacing, acting, story, and directing, the audience is allowed to feel the emotional impact of every action and absence of action. If you can allow yourself to imagine the internal tensions of the characters and forget about the details of the story, you might just enjoy Charlotte Sometimes.

'Charlotte Sometimes' is another highly accomplished Asian American movie released in 2003. Unlike the enjoyable, more mainstream high school black comedy 'Better Luck Tomorrow,' which MTV publicized and distributed, this one is quiet and subtle and focuses on relationships and choosing a mate. Michael (Michael Idemoto) has inherited his garage from his Japanese American parents. He lives in the top half of the family house and rents the bottom half to an Asian girl and her half Asian boyfriend. The couple has noisy sex every evening and loner Michael, who otherwise spends most of his time reading, goes to the local bar to avoid hearing. When he returns, the girl (Lori, Eugenia Yuan) comes up to watch a video and have a chat and a cuddle -- amenities the boyfriend doesn't seem to provide. Lori seems to have a purely sexual relationship with the hunky Justin (Matt Westmore, who's half Asian, like Eric Byler, the director of this movie).Lori wants them to double date with a friend of hers, but Michael refuses, saying "I'm not afraid of being alone." He does his reading. He works in the garage. That is his life. He seems cool with himself, content with this. On Sundays he hangs out with a relative, following a traditional obligation that he neglects during the affair that's about to begin.Next time he's at the bar he sees an attractive Asian woman (Jacqueline Kim). He leaves, then comes back. She talks to him. The non-committal Michael denies he came back for her, but when she leaves he runs out, admits he is interested, and invites her to his house, where they have some drinks, and then some more. He tells his story, but she reveals more, remaining mysterious. She says she's just visiting. She tells him her name is Darcy. When Lori comes up for her post-coital cuddle, Michael turns her away saying he's with someone. Darcy says that she's only there for a few days, she wants a quick sexual affair. Michael can't accept that -- he's probably too interested and too needy to get his mind around the idea of something temporary -- and he puts on the brakes. She spends the night, but they sleep separately.Darcy has a secret, which Lori knows and which soon is revealed when Justin comes up in the morning to have help opening the shared garage and Darcy suggests that all four have lunch. Lori doesn't reveal anything to the group, but in the ladies' room we find out that the two women are old friends, and Darcy, whose real name is Charlotte, was the other women Lori wanted to double date with. She has lied in refusing any interest in Michael, and has lied to Michael about who she is and presumably about where she lives. In being mysterious, she's playing the femme fatale, and Lori knows she's dangerous and not to be trusted. She warns Darcy/Charlotte to steer clear of Justin because "he may be the one I will want to marry."Eventually Michael finds out the secret and that changes everything. Lori challenges Justin by impulsively demanding after sex that he take her up to Monterey for the weekend. When he refuses she accuses him of being a "user." Stung, he storms out of the bedroom to leave, but later comes back and takes her on the trip. While they're away Michael goes into their place and finds old photographs that reveal Lori and Charlotte's friendship going back to their childhood. When Darcy/Charlotte next appears, Michael turns her away ruefully, deeply hurt to have been deceived. Charlotte runs into Justin in a coffee shop and disobeys Lori's request by letting him come on to her. They go to a motel to have sex. Lori realizes Justin has left and throws out his things and goes up to Michael again. This time it's no longer just cuddling and they kiss as the film ends. Clearly it's turning out that the feelings they had for each other were more than friendship all along, and their previous matches were the wrong people.'Charlotte Something' is as much about choosing the right mate as a Jane Austen novel, but it's all done with suggestion instead of elaborate speeches and analyses and a there are just a few repeated patterns of scenes instead of many chapters of narrative. The roles are also reversed. Justin, who's part Caucasian, is the sex object rather than Lori, and Darcy is a girl. Michael's laconic nature doesn't mean he isn't desirable or strong. Because all the characters hold back, but know what they want, and because the director and writer know what they're doing, every word and every shot count. The movie shows rather than tells, and never shows much, but it's amazingly rich and fresh considering the simple raw materials of four people and a house in Glendale. Michael's moment of final disappointment with Darcy is powerful and Charlotte's scene with Justin is shocking. The reunion of Justin and Lori is a denouement. The resonance of the loaded scenes continues long after one has left the theater. Everyone in the film is Asian, so that isn't an issue--except perhaps for Justin, who's only half. His non-Asian side seems to be what brings out the stereotypical pattern of seeing his Asian girlfriend as a sex object, but with the paradox that this is what he turns out to be. An emotionally loaded and thought provoking piece, 'Charlotte Sometimes' is subtler than the nonetheless excellent and more popular 'Better Luck Tomorrow', which has had wider distribution due to its MTV imprimatur.Michael's moment of final disappointment with Darcy is powerful and Charlotte's scene with Justin is shocking. The reunion of Justin and Lori is a denouement. The resonance of the loaded scenes continues long after one has left the theater.