A boring, predictable throwback

Rating: Null/10 (3 June 2005)

Two couples, Jude Law and Natalie Portman and Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, play mixed-doubles in this supposedly honest and adult drama. After a long summer of teenage-fare at the movies, I, like many others, start to get a hunger for adult fare and themes. This should have been just what the doctor ordered. But it wasn't. Although I was impressed by both Natalie Portman and Clive Owen, I found myself groaning inwardly throughout this entire film. I didn't believe it for a second. For a film that was supposedly challenging and startling, I found it utterly predictable. I found myself saying the lines before the characters. (Granted, there was an occasional insightful turn of a phrase, but, overall, I was under whelmed by the script.) Now predictability isn't necessarily a bad thing. I knew how "Downfall" was going to end but I was at the edge of my seat anyway. My problem is that I didn't buy the characters and the way they talked to each other. All I saw was the artifice, and not the artifice the characters presented to shield themselves, but instead the artifice of the actors themselves and the writer. Despite some forceful performances, it struck me as phony. This film is little more than a throwback to the "deep" relationship films of the late-60s and early-70s. Had this film been released instead of "Carnal Knowledge" or "Bob & Carol and Ted & Alice," even I'd probably be calling it a masterpiece. That's part of the problem. It seemed to speak to that society, not ours. The obvious comparison is with Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." It covers some of the same emotional territory, and was also a product of past sensibilities, but I found that film challenging. Why? Mainly because the narrative took me places I didn't expect to go. The central themes about fidelity and trust were, frankly speaking, trite. However, that film's vivid characters and suddenly turn to mystery and the macabre kept me on my toes. I predicted every plot turn on this film and got bored waiting for the characters to catch up to me. I wish I could have shared the rapture many of the reviewers here felt when they saw this film, but it just didn't work for me.