This Must Be the Place

I thought this would be a better movie. The premise is quite interesting and I usually like these artsy dramedies. This one on the other hand tries to be more artsy than it really is.

At first I didn't like how Sean Penn portrayed Cheyenne, but later on in the movie I completely forgot that I was watching Mr. Penn. So I guess the performance is good, and maybe I just didn't find the character to be a very interesting or likable.

This movie is slow, and I don't even mind slow movies. Hell I usually think the slower the better, but this just drags forever. The plot doesn't take off until half way thru and even then it feels like you've already watched this movie for hours.

There's an insane amount of camera trickery, almost every scene uses some camera dolly or crane thing, even if it serves no purpose other than moving the camera around in an "imaginative way". It was really distracting and I didn't find the camera work that fun to look at.

The script leaves a lot of stuff untold. There is talk about people who are seemingly important, but they are never explained who they are and while you have ideas, it's not something you'd like to spend any energy guessing. Some movies make these mind games fun, but here they're just annoying. I noticed myself thinking all the time if I had missed something, but reading at the forums here, I don't think I missed anything. This movie just doesn't inspire you to figure out those loose endings at all.

In the end I gather I just don't like the directors way of making movies. The story is quite interesting, but the way it's told just wasn't my cup of tea.