An insult to intelligence

Rating: Null/10 (5 June 2001)

The writers, producers, directors of this effort would have you believe that this is some sort of artsy, deep, deep portrayal of "middle Americans'" their values, their hypocrisy and the empty lives they all lead.
The film fairly hammers the audience with this message so that even the dimmest can get the point. The real estate wife, fairly whimpering with frustrated greed when she can't sell a house and who sleeps with the boss because she admires his salesmanship.(Is this REALLY believable?) Her husband (Spacey) who, while not only an unadmirable character,(he's a blackmailer), seems to be able to quickly strike up a close relationship with the completely alienated son of his next door neighbour but can't seem to do the same thing with his own equally alienated daughter.(Why is she alienated? We're never told.) The homophobic neighbour who just happens to be a latent homosexual and (surprise, surprise) a military man to boot! Good grief, the film is wall to wall cliched characters all of whom are overdrawn and frankly, not believable in either their dialogue or their actions. However, where the film really fails is that by the end of it and looking back, I can't recall one character that I ever truly cared what happened to or felt some sympathy for. Like the Spacey character himself, I felt cut off from the events before me and seemed to be watching it all through uncaring eyes. Maybe that was how one was supposed to feel and that was the "genius" of the film. But somehow I doubt it, since one can experience the same emotion watching "Freddie Got Fingered" - and that ain't no work of genius.