Huge Disappointment.

Rating: Null/10 (11 December 2004)

My friends and I were SO excited to see this movie. We were waiting for it for days and saw it the first night it came out.
What a disappointment. The lines were expressed exactly as they would if it were being performed as a play. This would be fine were it on the stage, but it wasn't and any sense of natural dialogue was lost.
Furthermore, there wasn't enough preparation to distinguish flashbacks from present-time.
The occasional white fades were awful and every Mike Nichols 'touch' (tight zooms, quick jump shots) were lost in this film.
Natalie Portman was the only redeeming character, but she didn't really redeem at all. I am disappointed that such a fantastic cast and crew couldn't put it all together.