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Wanted to Love it, But . . .
by tin (movies profile)
Jan 15, 2007
49
of
80 people found this review helpful
Right off, let it be known that I'm a Bill Murray fan. Unfortunately, he's been one of the walking dead for the last few years. This was not an acting job for Murray- this probably was his life. He's tired, burned out and ready for the pasture- no new ground explored in his persona- a tired retread making $ playing the same old same old. The character wants to pull a "woe is me", but he's had a great life and makes ridiculous sums of money for doing nothing. Unfortunately, Murray's become another Chevy Chase- unkind an observance as that might be. His love interest was great in Ghost World, but she doesn't hit the mark that well in this outing. Her dirty haired character lays around in her underpants doing nothing almost all the time. The audience is told that she is a Yale graduate in philosophy married two years, living in L.A., who has just graduated from college. Huh? How is that possible. Yale runs a correspondence school? Her husband is a real L.A. zero, fawning on other L.A. zeros, particularly a blonde stereotype, a poor knockoff of a T.V. show stereotype. The audience is supposed to believe that this young married couple have enough in common to lead to matrimony? Pleeze.
The cinematography is excellent, and almost takes over the film in its quest to show the clash and mix of American and Japanese culture. Well done and almost worth the price of admission. At times, the contrived story gets in the way; the trip to the disco, strip bar, etc. It's almost if someone had a laundry list of tawdry things to do in Tokyo- there is no real connection to the plot that is observable. Conclusion- rent it if you are a Murray fan, but there is probably something better to do (I'd hope). |
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