Boyhood reaction

"I wanted there to be more," Patricia Arquette's character says near the end of Boyhood. And after nearly three hours, to be honest, I would not have minded seeing more of this family's life. Richard Linklater filmed his characters over a period of twelve years to tell a rather ordinary story in a magnificent way, leaving the explosions and high drama out but keeping in the build up and wind downs of life's tensions. For the first, and possibly only time I will say that I wanted to see more of Ethan Hawke onscreen. Very good acting all around, and Arquette has some of her best onscreen work in her final scenes. You find yourself hoping the kids end up alright and wanting the parents to get something right and not screw up themselves or their kids. For the most part they do, but you see a lot of life's failures as well. "We're just winging it here," is Hawke's advice to his high school graduate son - and that one he gets right.