The movie tells the bittersweet story of Eli Smith (Eisenberg), a piano prodigy, whose mother struggles with drug addiction as he tries to get his family's affairs in order before he heads out to an important audition.
Boasts such a diverse cast of recognizable faces that you have to wonder where it all went wrong..a half-hearted tale that should land with more impact than it does.
It descends into a series of mawkish, over-melodramatic scenes that are entirely unearned and often unpleasantly noisy. It's never especially funny or dramatic and leaves the viewer feeling unsure of what the filmmakers were really trying to achieve.
The alleged comedy 'Why Stop Now' is here to prove that when it tries really, really hard to be awful it can overcome the obstacle of having a terrific cast.
This comic drama tries too hard to serve up a slice of manic life, but Eisenberg, along with Tracy Morgan and Isiah Whitlock Jr. as the affable druggies, provides some spark.
As "Why Stop Now?" gathers momentum, the increasingly uneasy sensation it produces is not unlike that of being in the back seat of a speeding car whose drunken driver refuses to give up the wheel.
NPR
August 16, 2012
Why Stop Now refuses to keep faith with its characters, to carry them as far as they can go without tying them up in a neat bow of redemption.
An odd mix of blatantly comedic moments and strangely serious scenes, Why Stop Now finds itself stranded on an odd middle ground between comedy and drama.
First-time directors Phil Dorling and Ron Nyswaner can't find a coherent emotional tone, and the actors' energetic contortions can't keep the sinking story afloat.
