Just terrific in every way.

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2011)

Seeing this several weeks after word of mouth, my expectations were high. Wrong, everything about this film is just spellbinding. The casting is superb. Mila Kunis is a discovery and Portman, Ryder, Hershey, and Cassell are perfection. I believed every scene and character, even the descents into obsessions. Neither horror nor chick-flick. That rare movie that cries 'leave the kids at home' for your personal experience. Skip Angelina Jolie and Justin Beiber. Film art and substance are available for adults this season.
The blending and meeting of reality and fantasy are cleverly crafted. The movie builds without a lot of exclamation points, to an exciting treatise on the sacrifices one must make to be perfect or as near as we can get. All the plot piece come together to a finish that is thorough, believable, and cautionary.