Highly Touted Offering

Rating: 3/10 (30 May 2010)

So! What's all the fuss about? I was very disappointed with this highly touted offering from director Sam Mendes and writer Alan Ball.
To be fair, the film does focus well on some of our worst human frailties, and a few scenes are disturbingly close to home. Having said this, I find it hard to call the disintegration of the family unit entertainment, let alone black comedy.
I am a huge Kevin Spacey fan, yet I could not take to him in this film. Either the role and he were mismatched, or he is only at his best in support roles. Annette Bening is at her marvellous best as the obsessive Carolyn, and Thora Birch is a major talent on the threshold as the frustrated teenager Jane. Mena Suvari, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Sam Robards and Scott Bakula also star. Thomas Newman produces a familiar theme.
What a shame this film lost the plot so badly after a promising, thematic beginning.
Friday, January 28, 2000 - Village Century City Walk