Rescued from the ashes by superb acting

Rating: 6/10 (7 July 2000)

I was not and am not a fan of this movie. True, it won the "Best Picture" Oscar. Yes, Kevin Spacey gave an excellent performance. But I think that the movie tries to villify "normalcy" to a ludicrous extreme. It takes what is commonly thought of as the "American Dream" and contorts every angle of it, so that what looks "normal" from the outside is the opposite, and vice versa. This may seem a good plot at first, but the movie plays it to the point of ridiculousness. In fact, the only thing that saves this movie in my opinion are the performances by Kevin Spacey and Annette Benning. (I saw this movie the day after "Three Kings" and was sure "Three Kings" would be an Oscar contender... Oh well... maybe some day action dramas will receive credibility.)