For those who choose their movies by the Oscars

Rating: 1/10 (14 December 2005)

While I am not inclined to make negative comments, in the interest of those who value their time, I must say that both my wife and I feel we wasted ours with this movie. In the movie at an art gallery, one of the characters comments about how one is not supposed to question the art. Likewise, it seems most reviews here are by the 'art critics' of the movie-going audience. Praise for 'intelligent dialog' and depth seem hollow. This film, like a number of the other highly acclaimed productions that seem more about what is trendy rather than what is substance, seems to exist primarily as a 'teaser'. It is a long, quirky excursion of continual suggestiveness. There are no 'sex scenes' as would be generally referred to, rather, the movie spends a lot of time talking about truth, relationships, and the intimate, specific details of unseen sexual acts repeated for the voyeuristic satisfaction of the two male leads. I'm sure many will want to point to the 'brilliance' of using characters so convinced of their understanding and devotion to the best of relationship values while constantly repeating failure after failure of each of those same values. Perhaps urine in a jar and monkeys throwing paint on canvas does make art--if so, this is your film. If not, don't bother. Society and each of us can, of course, use the benefit of entertainment to reflect us and to reflect on. However, lately that seems to mean find the lowest common denominators, portray that they are both uniform and accurate in describing our worth, and then repeat the same format of failures in a time line that is broken, jumbled and asynchronous and you have what will surely bring Oscar nominations and high praise as another brilliant work of art from Hollywood. And having recently seen "11:14" on DVD with Patrick Swayze reduced to mockery of himself, I should guess that Julia Roberts presence in a movie is no longer an indication of quality. But as they say, "ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances!"