A cliché

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2004)

I wished so much to like this film. I ended up very disappointed. Was it a bad movie? No. Was it a bad story? No. Was it bad handling by producer and director? Yes.
The problem is that the depiction is pure formula. Everything reeks phony. Phony, phony, phony! It makes shameless use of much too obvious Hollywood standard tricks to stir up emotions. The bicycling routine, the desk out the window, the stereotype mannerism, the ubiquitous self referencing (the board game, the pen gifts e.g.). And the international Hollywood symbol of "crazy" is walls plastered with papers and photos. Yawn!
The acting is downright hammy. It suffers from the Hollywood illness: heavy handed hammering the sentiments down our throats, no elegance at all. And the dumbest Hollywood standard of them all: let the actor speak out what has just been acted out! When even the dimmest of the viewers has seen "they did it" the actors MUST say "WE DID IT". Right, yes, why take the trouble of showing it on the screen when you tell us anyway? Does American directors think the viewers are too dumb to believe what they see? Are they planning the soundtrack for broadcast as a radio play on the side?
An English project would have created a much more subtle, intelligent movie which would have explored the story and impacted so much harder. I can't help compare with Shine. It's a totally different movie but the same story. It's done with elegance. I am quite unsentimental by nature but the tears forced their way out when I saw that. This didn't move me at all, I just started counting the clichés to have something to do while the utterly predictable moved along ...
This is a totally overrated film in my opinion. Oscar? More than one?? Best picture??? They must be joking!