Better than I expected. More than a mere emetic, it evoked love, joy, and goodness in me!

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2005)

This was way better than I had expected, based on what folks were saying. It was good to hear some things, though. The characters in this movie ARE odious. They are selfish and scheming and snotty and thoroughly unlikeable. Having said that, their self-centered actions DO represent an aspect of the darker side of all of us. Or, maybe, not so much the darker side, as the lower end of our potential. In other words, most of us have been one of those characters at one time or another. And watching this movie evoked the extreme of that. The movie kind of 'rubbed our noses in it', so to speak. It's more than a mere emetic, however. It was also grimly fascinating to watch. Something stirred inside me, not just recognizing the lower side of things, but my reaction to it all, which brought out the better part of me.
Julia Roberts was sensational. I must confess to never having liked her much before. She always struck me as a light-weight. But dang--- she was the co-best part of the movie, sharing that brilliance with the amazing Natalie Portman. The two of them proved themselves as actors of the highest caliber.
The boys--- Jude Law and Clive Owen--- I cannot say. Their characters were pretty scummy and unsavory. Maybe the male actors were so good that those nasty qualities naturally oozed out of the screen and onto their real-life personalities? That is to say, I didn't like them at all. But, perhaps the male actors were simply so artful and so convincing in their portrayals that my distaste was for the characters, and not the actors. Dunno... But I am made suspicious by the fact that so far in my movie going career as an audience member, Jude Law has played creeps almost every time (Enemies at the Gate notwithstanding).
I gave this a juicy 9 out of 10.