Great acting! - but it's a cheesy, formulaic movie

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2005)

I just saw this movie and I'm pretty mixed. The acting was great: Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti are outstanding in their roles. Giamatti just about steals the whole movie, he is beyond great. Unfortunately, Zellweger's role was weakly-written and though she does an okay job, she doesn't come off nearly as well.
The movie, on the other hand, is really simple and sappy. At first, it seemed like Ron Howard was going to make a truly great movie. There's real restraint and elegance for a while. But then he goes for the big, broad, sappy choices and the whole thing turns to mush. One of my biggest problems was that the script doesn't develop a truly interesting conflict. The ideas are there, but they're not developed in an interesting way.
Overall, it feels trite, maudlin and overblown. Like most Ron Howard movies, it's a competently-made, softened-up version of better movies. There's definitely some suspense, and, yes, the fight scenes are compelling. But by the end, I wasn't very moved. I guess people will feel a big emotional payoff, but it didn't work on me (and I'm usually a big sap).