Brilliance, ultimately frittered away

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2000)

The acting is wonderful, esp. Kevin Spacey. (IS anyone better?) The plots move ahead. So much works well, there is so much talent.....yet I wound up disappointed. There is an air to this movie of inappropriate mockery, a subtext that seems meaningless, unless you impart a meaning that would make a lot of people very angry (American middle class families are all disfunctional and hypocritical). Ultimately, this very well done movie has a theme and goal that seems designed to prove that Superior Hollywood intellectuals are entitled to look down on the average, deceitful middle-class.
Ultimately, I loved the movie for its technical skill, but hated its storyline and plotting.