Personal Effects has Ashton Kutcher leaving a promising athletic wrestling scholarship to abruptly go home after his sister is murdered. He wants to be with his mother Kathy Bates during their mourning period. Something that both are not dealing with in the best manner possible.

Kutcher also meets the older Michelle Pfeiffer who has a teenage son Spencer Hudson whom she is trying to mainstream in the public school. He's a handful and it is Hudson's character whom we are seeing the film through his eyes as he narrates.

Pfeiffer's husband was killed in a drunken stupid barroom incident that got taken outside and became fatal. Kutcher's sister might not have been the idealized person he makes her out to be in death. The one accused of her murder is one of her many boyfriends.

From promising college wrestler Kutcher in order to make ends meet dons a chicken outfit and passes out handbills for a Kentucky Fried Chicken like place. It's where Pfeiffer first meets him.

The inevitable happens, the two have common ground and that's the basis for a lot of romances. Kutcher also develops a relationship with Hudson and interests and coaches him in wrestling where he proves to be good.

The film ends on a nebulous note and you can decide for yourself whether Pfeiffer and Kutcher have a future. Personal Effects is about real people dealing with grief. We all have to at some point and for as many people as there are on planet earth there's another method for dealing with grief.

See if these two strike a familiar note in your life.

Walter (Ashton Kutcher) quits wrestling and is bitterly dealing with his sister Annie's brutal murder. He and his mother (Kathy Bates) attend a support group. He has a dead-end job dressed as a chicken, and grows frustrated at the trial for his sister's murder. He is taken with single mom Linda (Michelle Pfeiffer) raising her troubled deaf teen son Clay. She's also often at the courthouse attending her murdered husband's trial.

The material is dark but the movie seems intent on making a rom-com. It wants to be a feel-good triumph over personal demons quirky indie but the clashing tones don't work. The kid threatens another kid with a gun and all he gets is a talking to. I appreciate Kutcher trying something deeper but the movie has these odd unfunny quirkiness like the chicken suit. The material demands a darker and more disturbing film.

I've never written a review for a movie before. But after seeing such negative reviews for this movie I had to step up and say something. I thought this movie was great! The acting was superb and the plot was realistic. Some people seemed to think that the relationship between Michelle Pfeiffer and Ashton Kutcher was weird or creepy because of the age difference. This is absurd. There is nothing wrong with an older women falling in love with a younger man. Another problem people seemed to have with this movie was it's pace. Not me, I was enveloped into this movie from start to finish, and that's saying something since most of the time I watch DVDs I pause to take a break and do something else for a bit. I thought the story was engaging and the relationship between Michelle and Ashton believable.

If you're someone that's into movies involving regular people dealing with the stress and depression that life can cause then this movie is for you. But if your looking for the typical fake Hollywood stuff then you might want to pass this up.

On a side note, the only reason I gave this a 9 out of 10 was because I thought the ending could have been a tad bit better. Otherwise this movie is flawless.