| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
B- |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
B- |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Intense AND Boring
by Bruce (movies profile)
Mar 29, 2009
6
of
6 people found this review helpful
It's strange that a movie could be intense and boring at the same time. There is so much danger in this movie. So many people could get hurt really bad. I kept thinking "No! don't jump off the roof!" and "No! Don't drown yourself!" That was intense. But still it was BORRRRRING too much of the time. Joaquin Phoenix was just great. He was real and fragile. I worried about him. I also cared about Isabella Rossellini's character (his mother). She can be hit or miss and she hit it this time. Gwyneth Paltrow always surprises me at how good she is. She can play lots of different kinds of characters. Her character Michelle is ultimately unlikeable, selfish, stuck in drug addiction, codependent and not worth the time. Maybe that's part of what makes this movie boring. I was thinking "Ugh. Just get away from her." I guess some people (like Choire and Marcelo) wouldn't mind the boring parts. It all rings true. It looks good. The acting is good. But I like my movies to be sort of page-turners. I am not sure who's fault it is, but I guess either the script or the pace at which it was directed.
Bonus points for the realistic Brighton Beach Jewish semi-intellectual apartment. I have known apartments like that one. It was dead-on. |
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