Pretentious and over-hyped

Rating: 5/10 (6 March 2006)

The only thing lovable in this movie is its opening scene - funny and witty. All things that come after that leave a sense of being fed a dish made solely of flavor additives, not the real product. You watch people whose life is portrayed as complicated, and you simply don't believe their emotions are true. Whether it's bad acting (Matt Dillon has an emotional range as that of an armchair), bad writing (come on, how many more movies will abuse the idea of this kind of intertwining story lines?), or bad direction (too much slow motion is the most obvious indication of the director's lack of skill and inability to stress the importance of the scene in any other way), or a mix of all of these cinematographic sins - the outcome is truly an Academy Award night 'sensation,' as it is being labeled by media. A sensational victory of a passable, pretentious, and plainly boring picture.