Best movie of this year hands down!

Sorry, this movie sucks

So much average

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is a low budget Independent film that wowed critics at The Sundance Festival in 2007.It stars Jason Patric as Jay, a very strict Traffic warden who is in fact downright rude and also prone to violence and lying about the people he has booked. He provokes them and thinks his uniform is enough to see him through. In an early scene he books his own son.Claire played by British actress Samantha Morton is a new warden, good hearted in nature but lonely living with her disabled mother.Both characters go on a date and seem to be attracted to each other, although what Claire sees in Jay, no one knows. He is rude, obnoxious and tells her she is chubby. The fact that he has a very distant relationship with his son who is a musician might give a clue that he has issues, he mentions of his relationship in his college days which detoured his life. Jay is also addicted to online porn, more so than the normal red blooded male.The movie, filmed in sunny LA but set in Christmas is unusual with lead actors who are known names and features good acting. Jason Patric who was set for stardom in the late 80s and early 90s might be too good looking to play a loner with relationship issues. Samantha Morton looks too thin to be someone with a fondness for M&Ms.The film has its little twists and turns and although slight it keeps your interest.

Samantha Morton plays an unmarried meter maid who gets mixed up with Jason Patric another parking officer. Both are severely wounded individuals and their pairing makes for some darkly comic twists and turns.This is an often odd romantic comedy as the two characters come together and go apart and generally change as the result of the experience. The wrong sort of quirky I found it annoying more than anything else with complications seeming to pop up because they would make the story stand out rather than because its the natural progression of things. For me both of the leads are not particularly appealing and what they do seems more to come from left field then reality (Had they been real I think it could be argued they should be locked up). I won't deny its not a funny film, but I didn't much enjoy it.

Contrary to other opinions here, we did not find this movie at all funny, entertaining, or worth spending and hour and a half to watch. Instead, we found it boring and sad only.The biggest flash of humor was when Claire reads her mother's letter.We have seen many movies with dysfunctional characters, sad situations, and about people living pathetic lives that were actually worth watching. Contrary to what the trailer portrays, this is NOT a love story; it is a study in how we all approach life in vastly different ways.The acting was fine; the script just wasn't that clever or interesting. Teri Garr's character was the "highlight"; the main characters were so pathetic we didn't care about them.

I saw Expired. It's a fine film. Writer and director, Cecilia Miniucchi, did a superb job, the acting was great. What strikes me, though, is the film's uncanny resemblance to Federico Fellini's La Strada (The Road) starring Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina (Fellini's wife), Richard Basehart. Miniucchi said that she purposely cast Samantha Morton as the lead. I think she did so because Morton resembles Giulietta Masina. She has the same big sad eyes and innocent face. Jason Patric is the rugged emotionally crude Anthony Quinn. In La Strada, Quinn buys Mesina from her family and takes her away in his THREE WHEEL Motorcyle caravan to help him with his little strong man road show. Mesina must beat a drum and proclaim, "Zampano is here," in each small town.In Expired, Jason Patric, takes Claire on the road (to Pomona) in a THREE WHEEL traffic cop's vehicle. There are a number of similar scenes throughout Expired. But in the end, Patric, like Quinn, is too crude to earn Morton's love. In La Strada, Quinn abandons Mesina, only to discover her spirit in a seaside town. The confrontation undoes him and the end of the film shows him weeping on his knees next to the sea.