I personally enjoy independent films, being an up-and-coming filmmaker myself, however I’ve seen a lot of boring indie movies, so if one keeps my attention until the end, like Spooner did, it usually means it’s a good one. Even the music was surprisingly welcome; sometimes in a movie of this quality the music can seem routine, like not a lot of work is put into it, but here it felt like more care was involved and that made it satisfying. Everyone may not be drawn to small, unique films, but if you appreciate a good entertaining indie movie, this one is for you.

Spooner stars Matthew Lillard who plays a thirty-year old car salesman still living with his parents, and Nora Zehtner who becomes the love interest. The story starts pretty generically with Herman Spooner (Matthew) who is out of luck in every aspect of his life, his job performance is failing, and his parents are kicking him out of the house, but he happens to meet the girl of his dreams. Spooner may be a thirty-year-old man but he acts like a teenager. He still goes into his childhood fort, plays video games, and is irresponsible, but at least he’s honest. A little too honest, and maybe that’s why he never sells any cars. His manner of speech I found pretty amusing, reminding me of Neil Patrick Harris’ character Barney Stinson from the show How I Met Your Mother, because of the frequent use of the word “awesome.” Spooner finds Rose (Nora Zehtner) stranded on the side of the road due to her car breaking down. He stops to help her out and develops quite a liking to her.

What saves the story is the good acting; Matthew Lillard does a fantastic job at playing the character and making it enjoyable. He plays an honest, everyday sort of person living in Monrovia, Ca. which I find funny because I live only a couple towns over from there. But things start to get interesting with his new love interest. Matthew and Nora play really well together in this movie. Their quirky adventures are rather entertaining, such as a very quirky first date at a hotel, which has got to make you smile at least a little bit, while the joke about spooning is flimsy. There were also a couple of other performances that I enjoyed seeing here as they branch out in their career, such as Shea Whigham who comically played the boss, Christopher McDonald who plays the father, and Mark Boone Junior who plays a hotel worker and a barber.

Spooner goes very far in trying to keep Rose in town as he learns she is on her way to the Philippines to become a teacher, because she feels she could be doing more with her life. Sometimes he verges on being a little stalker-y, following her to her hotel for example, sabotaging her car, and crashing her going away party, but you feel as if the character doesn’t know any better. Throughout the film you find yourself smiling and chuckling as Spooner improvises ways to interact with Rose. For example, after he realizes that he is falling for this girl, he decides to further sabotage her vehicle (also known as “Roxanne”) in order to delay her departure to her home in San Francisco. Upon realizing what he has done, Rose is a little bit startled by his impeding actions, and leaves as if she has no feelings for him at all. He decides to drive all the way to San Francisco and make one more effort before she leaves. I really enjoyed the end result, it could have easily ended as every other romantic comedy, but this one threw a little loop and I appreciate that.

The story raps up quite nicely in an equally generic way but it feels nice. In my opinion the acting is the best part of this movie; if it didn’t have the right actors it would not be as enjoyable as it is. When the movie was over it didn’t feel forced, but rather it flowed well as I enjoyed the ride. It was a pleasurable movie watching experience that kept me laughing. So I would encourage all to take a chance and appreciate indie movies by picking up a copy of Spooner.