xmensch

Flickers of sophistication. Otherwise, too long, too sentimental, too unselfconsciously overplayed. Berenger almost pulls off the sympathetic broken man character, but without enough cheap action to prop him up, he pretty much melts into the part. The premise is stock standard enough that a brainless monkey should be able to make a movie around it, but the script is so unbelievable, and oddly structured (moments of grainy flashback flicker sporadically through the plot, gradually advancing an all too obvious and predictable back story), with characters introduced in tossed-off, sitcom-ish scenes, never to reappear again, that its hard to get through more than a scene or two without groaning. Still, there are flares of inspiration - or rather, imitation with skill. But they are transitory moments - literally. As my first English teacher said when she was looking for something nice to say about one of my essays: "Good transitions!"