mr0goodtime

This is a story how the stresses of work really can rip at a mans soul. This is the world of cold-calling real estate sales. 5 middle-aged men, in close confines, trapped in a sleazy terrain, day after day, they are hooked on abuse, perpetually bitching and tearing each other apart.

It is sad, but the movie is gripping because the acting performances are truly extra-ordinary. You can select any one these actors -Spacey, Lemon, Baldwin, Pacino- and adulate over their intense performnaces. Any movie would be elevated by just one great performance, this one has four, plus, there's more. Alan Arkin, Johnathon Pryce, Ed Harris, they also bring in great performances

Jack Lemmon's performance was nuanced, his voice and face portrayed the fear and sadness underneath a phony exterior, one of the greatest performances I've seen. A lot of actors have great performances based on intensity, but Lemmon here did it on a great range of emotions.

The abuse and despair will turn off some people, but I think the story is relevant to everyone who feels the accumulated stresses of a tight work environment, and the sadness of having some career that somehow, before you could see it coming, becomes an abuse trap with no way out.

John Constatine is so jaded -after all hes been to hell and back- that he wears a perpetual snarl. This in itself is probably the best I've seen from the lack-of-character actor, Keanu Reeves. Dare I say he played well the role of the stoic, gritty angel?

Constatine is challenged by Detective Angela Dodsen (Rachel Weisz) who, like her twin sister who committed suicide and is thus banished to hell), is also one of the few talents who can see the demons. Angela wants somehow to prove that her sister was actually murdered, and I guess somehow get her sister out of hell.

The movie opens with an exorcism and some wild special effects, and throughout there's always the promise of some exciting effects to be had. Well, we've seen good fx before, but how many movies let you hang around hell for a while. That was cool too.

In between the cool scenes, though, Constatine is miserable, which sort of permeates the film. Demons are escaping into "our plane" but the acting is weak so you never get a sense that the danger is real. Even Satan appears but he doesn't look dangerous, he just looks like the journey-man actor that he is, Peter Stormare.

I cant compare it to the comic book, since I've never read it, but I shudder to think how long its been since weve seen the really great demon movies such as the Exorcist and the Omen.

Chow is a novelist writing a sci-fi story that is a metaphor for his romantic life. He associates with many beautiful women (Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li should be enough to make any man grateful), yet he is always lonely or yearning for some other love from his past.

Although there is a unique style and story, particularly for American movie goers, and I enjoyed some of the devices, its also slow and I guess it becomes the so-called "art movie" which in my mind is a euphomism for good cinematography but no dramatic effect. Why do I care about a guy who is always unhappy, going from one woman to the next. There were many chapters to this story, some including the stories of his novel, but mostly they just came and went with little elaboration or effect.

Some of the good things were nice visuals, a good cast, and the fictional android that represented unattainable love.