If you pay attention, this movie has much to say

Rating: Null/10 (17 July 2002)

I wasn't sure quite what to expect when I sat down to watch this. It seems, at first, to be a kind of screwball, suburban comedy. It was actually the third time watching it that a lightbulb kind of went off. All of a sudden, I got it! This is a very, very good movie with a very unique way of making it's points.
We seem to go through our lives all wrapped up in the garbage of modern life; the over-commercialization of virtualy everything, the constant race to capture what we think we want, what we think we need to be happy. We forget all about the things that used to make us feel joy, the things that used to just make us feel good inside. This movie, to me, was almost like driving home from work after a bad day, and stumbling on a radio station playing a song from your adolescence; a song that you hadn't heard in 20-30 years, and had completely forgotten about. You hear the song, and you suddenly remember the way it used to make you feel, the crush you had on the girl in your class, the sights and sounds that used to make you feel everything was alright with the world. We grow up and forget all about those things, and we get completely caught up in all the things that are supposed to equate to happiness in the grown-up world: money, status, more and better "things". We suddenly find ourselves in middle age thoroughly depressed, and utterly unhappy with where we are, what we're doing, and how we got there. Part of what this movie is about is the story of a man who reaches to find that person he used to be; to rediscover the things that used to make him feel good, to feel alive, to feel like a man. That the movie ends tragically is almost beside the point. He had finally found it, and now finally understood.
This is a fascinating movie to watch, and there is alot more here to interpret than you can see on the surface. A superb acting job by everybody involved, especially Kevin Spacey.