Parents' Guide to Seasons

Seasons has many emotionally true moments delivered by two solid actors, but it's hard to root for the egregiously flawed narrator as she describes her repeated terrible errors in judgment. Her admission that she isn't "perfect" is the understatement of the century. She has a cloying cheerfulness and singularly fatiguing excess of personality. She is aggressive and often speaks for the two of them when Kurt's obvious discomfort suggests he doesn't feel the way she says he feels. The lie she tells to try to get Kurt back is ridiculous, straight out of a really bad I Love Lucy episode and a demonstration of more than a little bit of a character flaw. She is jealous. She is selfish. She is a liar. She is thoughtless. She is cruel. Her decision to manipulate Kurt is an alarm bell. We can't help but feel that Kurt is far too nice a person to get saddled with her.

The movie jumps around in time, with an overabundance of flashbacks that do little to give the relationship depth. We are left to believe that anyone who could exploit Kurt's loyalty the way Charlie does could also do other awful things. So even as moving interactions between them occur in their reconciliation, Charlie just doesn't feel sympathetic enough to provide the balance the movie needs to qualify as "good." Just because they have cute nicknames for each other doesn't mean they'll live happily ever after.