Harvey meets Groundhog Day

Rating: Null/10 (21 March 2002)

Spoilers herein.
I'm very easy to please when it comes to stuff like this, especially if it successfully and visually builds a world of mood. I give special consideration to first-time competence, and am especially interested in projects Barrymore sponsors.
I love time folding, self-reference and narrative challenges. I really enjoy films whose narrative depends on other films, ideally classics.
And yet this film failed me, because of reliance on two devices that really annoy. The first is the embedded parody on 70-80's teen flicks. This is simply hackneyed by now. I could take it in 'Ghost World,' in 'Go,' even in 'Ginger Snaps.' But here it is simply a crutch with nothing new and much that is old.
The other annoyance -- rather a barrier to endearment -- is the heavihanded symbolism. I gladly swallowed it in 'American Beauty,' more eagerly in 'Fight Club,' and reluctantly with 'Magnolia.' But here, it is so heavihanded only a teenager could not think it unsophisticated. And this in a film quoting Graham Greene!