Good guys and bad guys...

Rating: 8/10 (25 June 2009)

The outrage surrounding this picture is again created by people who, though they have every right to their strong opinions, simply cannot grasp the truth behind the meaning. If you haven't lived a chunk of the many lives beautifully portrayed in this tight little film, its going to miss your exit and take you into unfamiliar territory. Many, if not most people go to the movies for the simple entertainment value, where as others go in order to seek out something familiar and often painful within themselves. The former movie goer is eager to see something where there are good guys and bad guys and despite seemingly insurmountable odds, the good guy prevails at the last moment, creating a perfect circle of meaning and the ultimate satisfaction that good triumphs over evil; a happy little package with a perfectly tied bow. The latter film-goer however, comes in with the understanding that life, or at least a brief glimpse into people's lives, is a linear event, often not turning out in happy endings or even providing endings at all. It is with this understanding that the viewing of this film must be undertaken. Prepare yourself to initially misunderstand or even hate a character and then suddenly kick yourself for having been so short sighted. Like the real lives that people live every day, this film either runs through your neighborhood or is just another unfamiliar place that you never would have known to exist.