Sex trouble

I am a huge fan on Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and he is the reason why I was dying to see this movie. For the amount of money that it cost to buy the DVD, I wasn't too impressed with the movie. The only reason to watch it is b/c of the photography scene. OOOh la la!!

A good cast does their best with an average script that, although predictable, is still watchable until the very end. Shawn Hatosy (The Faculty) plays David who fancies the pants off his close friend Jenny (Rachael Leigh Cook – She's all that), although the reality hits him that she only regards him as a friend and nothing more.

things change dramatically when David's ultra confident and slightly mysterious old friend Alan (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers – Velvet Goldmine) appears on the scene and sweeps Jenny off her feet, leaving David feeling very jealous indeed as well as concerned as he knows all too well of Alan's dodgy past. The story is told from David's point of view and includes many flashbacks as the story unfolds which do not always work. Plus, the final 'twist' is absolutely no surprise at all.

Despite all the negative reactions I read, I consider Tangled unexpectedly enjoyable for a popcorn movie and worth watching. Maybe the scenario is not that shiny and the whole concept could have been processed in a much more impressive way, but still, it's a fine piece.

The story tells about the love triangle of young American high school students. The warm-hearted David (Shawn Hatosy) secretly admires his best friend, beautiful photographer Jenny (Rachel Leigh Cook). When David's old friend, crazy and attractive, heedless Alan comes on the scene, Jenny falls in love with him. How will David deal with it?

Especially Rhys Meyers did a good job. He's also very cute. Everybody has to love him as the beautiful and uncontrollable heartthrob Alan. The movie has an interesting cut sometimes. The story is perceived from retrospective and has a surprising ending. It's nothing intellectual or sophisticated surely, not artistic and not as complicated as it might look. But if you just want to relax and get amused (and if you like some of the lead actors starring here), you should watch it.

The premise of "Tangled" is a promising one. It's the old story of unrequited love in a triangle of friends which leads to madness and violence. Could make for a thrilling movie, but for some reason "Tangled" was made more complex than it should be with its unnecessary flashback-storytelling and its "surprising" twist ending. A traditional approach would have made for a much more natural feel. Also, in the final third of the movie characters start to behave unbelievably, all for the sake of a more shocking "outcome". Leigh Cook and Rhys Meyers do their best to give their characters more credibility, but Shawn Hatosy and his wooden facial expressions make everything worse. "Tangled" is watchable if nothing else is on, but it's neither a good movie, nor a satisfying way to kill time.

At first, I thought this is a second class movie with horrible acting, scene, script and so on and so on. But, after I watched it, I realized that I judged it too early. It's not as bad as I thought, as the matter in fact, it's not bad at all. It's unexpectedly good.

The cross-cut scene, the premise of thriller and good cinematography are already there when you watched it for 15 minutes. The more you watch it, you just follow what will happen and it may surprise you as it's not like what you expect.

What makes me amazed more is that, after I knew this is the first movie of the director, the script writer and the story writer. For their first experience, yes ... it's amazingly great movies. I hope to see more of their movies in the future. I must congratulate them for this.