Solid, entertaining flick, but not the hyped masterpiece others portray

Rating: 7/10 (5 October 2011)

Fairly solid popcorn flick, though there seems to be some hype over substance.
Nice looking film that's well shot, but felt like I had seen it all before. Soundtrack seemed to be all over the place and stylistically it seemed a little mish-mash at times, i.e 80's Miami Vice/Scar Face meets 70's film-noir, which creates a kind of weird modern/retro look and feel to the film. Pacing was a little off for the first 30 minutes of the film.
I kept on thinking back to Gosling's performance in Lars and the Real Girl (those awkward, long silences). Great to see Nemo's dad as a psychopath. Solid, workman-like performances by most of the cast, though Mulligan seems to be putting in the same goofy, doe-eyed performances of late(Never let me Go, Wall Street 2, etc) Enjoyable, but I think some of the hype/talk has made this film something that it isn't.
You can certainly do a lot worse for 90 minutes.
7 - 7.5/10