Good Performances, Choppy Editing, Points that Don't Make Sense

Rating: 6/10 (10 March 2004)

Having just returned from an advanced screening of this movie, it's hard to find exactly what I want to say about it without giving too much away.
Jim Carrey turns in a solid performance, and for the most part one of his most understated and nuanced. In all, the acting is solid by all concerned. As far as that goes, this is a very good film.
On the other hand, I found myself thoroughly confused at various points. There are elements of the story from the beginning that don't make sense at the end. Again, I don't want to give it all away before people have had a chance to see the movie for themselves, but I will say that the ending is rather contrived and, in the context of the movie, doesn't make particular sense.
The plot of the movie is quite good, but the storytelling is choppy and the way it's been edited together gets rather harsh at times. This probably won't make much sense right now, but I thought that there were points at which the movie was so obviously trying to be obscure that it put me off quite a bit.
The cinematography got downright annoying at times. The whole movie is shot on handheld cameras (I think digital as well), and at times the image bounces around so much that it's hard on the eyes.
Perhaps the best way to sum this movie up is simply to say that it had good ideas, but the execution isn't great. It did get a bit sappy at times, too. Elijah Wood's performance is perhaps the weakest of the film; he comes across as rather whiny and cold. His character doesn't have a lot of screen time, though, so it's not a major impediment.
It's not terrible, but it's not terrific either. The whole core of the film really comes down to the old platitude that one has to take the good with the bad in relationships and that one shouldn't be willing to give up the good memories of one's life in order to escape from the bad ones. Perhaps this is part of why the sentimentality is so overblown at times.
The film will benefit from the presence of Jim Carrey and might do fairly well at the box office. That being said, it's no "Truman Show."