What's it all about?

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2015)

The cinematography, the setting and the acting are all fantastic in this movie. But in the end, it didn't move me. It struck me as being very much an actors' movie, with too many inside jokes and meanings to really reach the audience. Michael Keaton really tries hard as a former action movie hero at the end of his rope, who is prepared to gamble his entire career on an avant garde Broadway adaption of a Raymond Carver novel. Emma Stone, Edward Norton and Naomi Watts all try even harder as the central character's daughter and fellow actors. The special effects such as flying and Keaton's ability to move objects around his dressing room struck me as more about wowing the audience than meaning anything. There are some amusing and interesting scenes, such as Keaton getting locked out of the back of the theatre and having to go to the front doors, running the gauntlet, half naked, of the crowds in Times Square. But there are too many scenes where the characters simply emote for no good reason -- most of Stone's scenes fall into this category. The ending was rather distressing and I felt it was a cheap resolution.