What a load of kak, yet have to see worse than this!

Rather than subject yourself to this train wreck of a movie, I recommend doing a chore you absolutely abhor. This way you will accomplish something & not waste 80 minutes of life on this meandering movie. Cleaning gutters immediately comes to mind. Rose McIver is a beautiful young actress that has yet to find a movie to do her justice. This had the screen time, but little else to forward her career. Chris Lowell wants desperately to be Jake Gylenhall, but aside from few physical similarities (good looks, not one of them) he epically fails. His acting was plain awful. He exuded energy that made you wish you were anywhere else. The script may have called for a confused young man, but he came across as an arrogant guy in real life trying to quash that arrogance in pursuing his futile attempt to convey other emotions. Plus, few things grate on one's nerves like an arrogant actor with no talent or reason to be so. The story felt like a folded up tent, many lines of direction jumbled into a fantastic mess. There were no redeeming qualities to be found, and I looked quite intently & thoroughly. I rate it 2/10 stars because Rose McIver is beautiful & I feel sorry that she was in this movie versus almost any other. She was cheated, and hopefully she will bounce back & achieve her potential. There was no brightness to this star except the wonderful release I felt when it ended. Be warned, watching this in it's entirety may give even pacifists the desire to hurt something or someone. I've done my best to be fair & mild in this review. Knox D. Alford, III

Between Jessica Szohr, who disappeared from my radar since Gossip Girl went off, and Rose McIver who is on both Once Upon a Time and Masters of Sex that, for me, was the main draw of this movie. I mean, yes, there is a very cute poster, and a nice little trailer, but with the lead simply being "The Boy" and a plot which seemingly isn't sure what it really wants to do with its unnamed protagonist, it is hard to really understand why they called such a dim story the Brightest Star.Characters & StoryTo begin, we follow around "The Boy" (Chris Lowell) who is in a deep, almost obsession like, fascination with a young woman named Charlotte (Rose McIver) who, like 90% of the characters in the film, come from a well off family. However, unlike most infatuations, somehow he gets the girl of his dreams. Thing is though, while Charlotte has both ambition and beauty, "The Boy" is rather aimless and seemingly coasting through life to the point that, eventually, Charlotte decides it is time to move on because as she gets older, being stuck with the guy who seems to have no passions is just not the life she wants to live.Enter Lita (Jessica Szohr) who is now renting the place Charlotte left "The Boy" in and, after breaking up with her boyfriend and quickly swapping him with "The Boy," Lita now takes this man child in her arms. And while their relationship is cute, she can't get past the suspicion that she is just a rebound, and as her father gives him all Charlotte may have desired in a man, "The Boy's" mind wanders and we are left wondering will he ever decide what he wants to be, who he wants to be with, and what he will do in his future? Or will he simply drift to what comes easy and rely on the pity of others to keep him coasting through life?PraiseWhat I liked most about the film is that "The Boy" and Charlotte have a complicated romance. Yes, it begins rather quickly, but from there a progression begins in which, as they leave the honeymoon stage, they enter into an adult relationship which requires more than fun times in the present, but an actual future. Which, unfortunately for Charlotte, seems to be this man trying to spend all his time with her. And though it sounds like that part more so belongs in the section above, I note that part here because the story addresses the weirdness of romance films in which often one side is so infatuated with the other that it seems they don't do much else with their life besides focus on them. And rather than Charlotte be the kind we are used to which makes excuses and is long suffering, she seems real. She leaves and creates a story for "The Boy" which maybe about him finding himself to a point, but also it shows the sort of sickness that heartbreak can cause as he becomes mentally geared to do whatever it takes to get her back, and in this we see a clear issue of how men act in romance films in which they show up, expect to be forgiven, and then think things will go back to how they used to be, which Charlotte, albeit at first, reminds him isn't how the world works. She notes his ways are creepy, and you can see how uncomfortable she is, and in that you get a rare glimpse of reality which often is missing in films like these because they want to focus so much on the whole lovey-dovey aspect to the point they gloss over how problematic the male lead is acting.CriticismHowever, even with the praise, which perhaps is a bit overdone, this film does somehow make an hour and 20 minutes seem a bit long. Perhaps part of the issue it seems long is because the lead is never given a name, back-story, and the one friend we see him having, she disappears once Charlotte becomes his girlfriend. Thus making "The Boy" pretty much a mirror who only reflects whoever he is currently with, or dated last. And, mind you, though he does progress and evolve, somewhat, throughout the story, I just felt that with his being defined so much by him being validated by a love interest, I just couldn't get into the movie.Overall: TV WatchingThough the film certainly has its problems, it isn't horrible. McIver makes a likable love interest, as does Szohr, but Lowell is just too dull, and his character underdeveloped, to say this needs to be at the top of your Netflix, or be something you need to see now. At best, it is good to kill some time with on a Sunday when there is nothing to do. But, don't expect a whirlwind romance; a satisfying development from a lost college student to someone with a purpose; and though I praise Charlotte noting how creepy "The Boy" is, mind you that this isn't like Don Jon where there is a real, in-depth, sort of thought developed into how and why men think their approach to woman is appropriate.

"Brightest Star" is an indie romantic drama about the journey of winning back the love of your life versus finding yourself. The Boy (Chris Lowell) loved Charlotte (Rose McIver) and lost Charlotte, and now he's lost himself and will do whatever it takes to get her back. That's right, our lead character doesn't have a name but every other main character does. If you haven't figured it out yet, he doesn't know himself very well.Some of the early sequences are out of chronological order, but it's not difficult to figure out where we're at. He was with Charlotte and now he's not. The film seems to revel in its independence with many close-up shots of the characters deep in thought with nondescript music playing in the background. It's a meandering tale of losing your first love and then finding yourself.The over-arching element of the story is of the universe. The boy is a liberal arts grad but is really interested in astronomy and he wants the universe to guide him in making the right decisions. As he explains in the opening narration, you could say it does, but I really hoped he eventually figured out how stupid he was being. The whole physics/universe angle is starting to become greatly over-used in recent indie romantic dramas and comedies, so it just doesn't feel all that fresh anymore.The writing was decent and the acting was good, but there's nothing to elevate the film to a higher level. The boy goes from meaningless job to meaningless job because he just doesn't know what to do and it takes him a while to figure out how to win back Charlotte. I never understood why he wanted Charlotte back in the first place. We never got to know her and only saw her treat him terribly. But the point isn't to get to know the characters. The point is that The Boy could be any boy, and every boy has a Charlotte. And every Charlotte is different except that they don't love the boy anymore.I needed "Brightest Star" to tell a more specific story. Preferably one where the boy wasn't so clueless and didn't need the universe to tell him what to do.