the oranges

Director: julian farino

Actor: leighton meester,hugh laurie,catherine keener,allison janney

Data Published: Fri Oct 05 2012

Genres: Comedy,Drama,Romance

Key Words: thanksgiving,restaurant,christmas lights,christmas carol,fired from the job

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1313139/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oranges_(film)

Description: The Oranges is a movie starring Leighton Meester, Hugh Laurie, and Catherine Keener. The enduring friendship between the Walling and Ostroff families is tested when Nina, the prodigal Ostroff daughter, returns home for the holidays...

Plot: The story is narrated from the perspective of aspiring furniture designer Vanessa Walling, (Shawkat) whose plan to stay at home for a few months after college has turned into years. She makes up increasingly stupid reasons why she does not like all the apartments that her mother and colleagues find online for her. She witnesses the heartache between her parents, David and Paige Walling, (Laurie and Keener) as their relationship falls apart from years from sleeping in separate beds and pretending to be happy. Their best friends, Terry and Cathy Ostroff, (Platt and Janney) live across the street in their suburb of West Orange, New Jersey. The friendship between the two men is so predictable you could "set your clock by it". This all changes, however, when prodigal 24-year-old daughter, Nina Ostroff, (Meester), returns from a 5 year absence after her fiance, Ethan, disliked by her parents, dumped her. Nina and Vanessa had been childhood best friends before Nina moved on to new friends during high school, and Vanessa is unhappy to see her back. However, both sets of families (at least the mothers) would like to see newly-single Nina and jet-setting son Toby Walling (Brody) form a relationship, and Cathy is excited when the Toby and Nina go to the basement together after their Thanksgiving meal. Despite flirtatious back-and-forth, Toby falls asleep after drinking, leaving Nina alone in the house. She goes to find David in the pool house where he said he was watching "late night TV", and they sit together briefly, watching a Korean basketball game. There is a chemistry between them, and they share a kiss before David pulls away. The next day, Toby goes to the Ostroff house to drop off a sweater Nina left behind the night before. Cathy is keen to hear what went on, but Nina is less inclined to gossip. Toby invites her to dinner at the Walling house that night in order to spend more time with her. After playing a family board game, David says he'll go out and get a movie, and Nina offers to join him, and whilst driving to collect the movie, and having just stated that "last night was a mistake", they kiss again. No one is aware of the budding relationship between David and Nina until Cathy follows Nina to a motel after she said she was going out with Toby, whom Cathy discovers had already left for Washington DC that morning. Cathy finds Nina at the motel, and literally bumps into David as he's bringing ice to the room. She puts the pieces together and deduces that David and Nina are at the motel together. Then, the meltdown of both families begins. Vanessa witnesses the resulting fight between her parents who have slept in separate bedrooms for years, pretending to be happy. Paige moves out to the only B & B in town, leaving David to wallow. The relationship between David and Terry is strained and they don't take their usual morning jogs together. The relationship between David and Vanessa is strained too. David and Nina don't see each other until they meet for coffee some weeks later. Nina still has feelings for David and asks him if he is happy. Then, she asks him that if there were no rules, would he lean across the table and kiss her, and he says yes. They leave the cafe and get into David's car, saying they have 51 hours before he has to be back at work, and they head off to Atlantic city, where they gamble, go to the beach and have an awkward encounter with one of David's colleague and his wife. They discover that their relationship is real, and they truly have feelings for each other. When they get back from Atlantic city, they gather all members of both families (minus Toby, who is in China) in the lounge and announce that they are in a relationship. This causes conflict between all parties, especially Vanessa, who asks her father "if you had to fuck someone half your age, why did it have to be her?". Nina moves in with high school friend Meredith. Upon finding Nina's bag in her house, Vanessa takes it and is seen walking towards a garbage truck when Nina pulls up in her car, demanding to know what Vanessa is doing with her bag. The two struggle over the bag, resulting in Vanessa getting a head injury and being treated by Terry, who has a heart-to-heart with her about the situation. A few days before Christmas eve, Ethan shows up outside David's house, begging Nina to take him back. He first goes to the Ostroff's house across the street where Cathy gives him a set of keys. He lets himself in David's house and hears Nina telling David that she loves him. After asking Ethan to leave multiple times, David forcefully removes him and throws him on the lawn. Toby arrives home for Christmas from China. Ethan stays outside David's house until Christmas eve, when Paige shows up in her car. They briefly talk before Paige drives her car into the Christmas ornaments in David's front yard after noticing her former caroling group. When David comes out to stop her, she chases him in her car knocking down the ornaments. Everyone runs into David's house. Toby, still shocked about the news, gives everyone gifts from China. David makes a short speech that Paige finishes. Vanessa breaks down crying. Nina apologizes to Paige who reacts violently. Later that evening, David finds Nina upset, and they talk about running away to Mexico, but Nina asks "but what then, David?" to which he has no reply. Vanessa narrates, explaining that Nina broke up with everyone that night. She is seen talking to a put-out Ethan after leaving David in the house. Next, Vanessa is seen moving into a tiny apartment in Manhattan, her dream since she was young. She continues and says that Nina traveled around Europe before getting a job as a chef in Rome, and a 'Greetings from Rome' postcard is shown on Cathy's fridge. Vanessa explains that what happened at Christmastime was important for everyone.