mgchainsaw

Well, you can look at this movie one of two ways. Either go in looking for a thought provoking thriller and be disappointed, or have a few brews, have some friends over and laugh your behinds off at the hackneyed plot line/characters and the amazing "suspension of disbelief" the plot demands. At first, I figured Kevin Bacon is in it, so there might be something to look for in this movie - IMHO, he usually involves himself in some very good movies with some very interesting ideas (Murder in the First, The Woodsman, etc.) Fairly soon, you realize this was just one of those "need to make some $$" movies, and it's actually hilarious how see through the plot line is and the amazing levels of disbelief that is required to move from one scene to the next. John Goodman is great in this, too, (once you've thrown reality out the door). I still have to give this a really poor rating, though, since it's incumbent on the viewer to recognize the farce in front of him/her - but it's a great straight man to make fun of.

OK, this could maybe be described as a "chick flick" and I'm actually surprised that I made it through to the end on this one, but I'm glad I sat through the whole thing. It was an odd movie. It really tested your "suspension of disbelief" and used some odd camera shots, especially in the beginning for no other reason I could surmise but to prove that the director was going to be taking some risks in the movie.

I had no idea what this movie was supposed to be when I watched it, and that's a good thing. It could've been a murder mystery, could've been a romance, could've been some kind of psycho-drama - I just didn't know. Suffice to say that it actually had elements of all of these and more, and the acting was actually quite good. Josh Hartnett really tried to give an emotional performance without over acting and it really did work. I was very impressed by Rose Byrne, and the rest held their own. We were certainly expected to allow for a great deal in the way of "coincidence", so just do so (I mean we give Shakespeare a lot of latitude when it comes to that sort of thing, so why can't we in a modern movie?) and I think if you are willing, you will be happy with the ending and the movie overall. It's far from perfect, but I actually enjoyed the movie a great deal.