A good film that could have been great.

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2014)

If you haven't seen the film yet, after 14 years since it's release, be prepared for spoilers. The soundtrack is mostly distracting. Except for when you know that Patrick is listening to the same thing as us - the viewers - the soundtrack seems to want you to believe that this is the music that everyone listened to during the 1987 and it didn't matter who they were. Even trying to believe that this is Patrick's soundtrack, I found him boring and cliché. Truly, the soundtrack did not live up to the personality of the main protagonist and who he believed himself to be. The theatrical release of this film was edited poorly as you get to the conclusion : at no point is the big reveal, well, big. It seems like an afterthought. It leads to confusion, not the great, "A ha!" You are never given the opportunity to rehash the film and understand that it was mostly in Patrick's head. The only other downfall for this film would be that given the satirical tone, most of the time the satire was boring. Christian Bale was fine as were the other actors. The cinematography top notch. But for what must be a heavily edited film, I did like it.