Not as perfect as many people say, but darn good!

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2006)

Let me get this off my chest: this movie is NOT perfect. It starts off with a lot of stuff that seems more at home in a pretentious film school project than a Charlie Kaufman flick. I didn't know it was the great Kaufman who had written the script, and for the first 15 minutes or so, I sat there wondering if the writer and director were George Lucas' kids or something, given a bunch of money to make a big-name vanity movie, a la "The Brown Bunny".
Well, if I were to watch the movie again now, I'd understand that vague beginning, because the film really IS beautifully crafted, heartwarming and true to the concepts of love. But it takes a while to get that. Compared to the other Kaufman flicks I've seen (Human Nature, Being John Malkovich) it fails in that respect: it doesn't convince me that the wackiness is worth it from the get-go. I could have turned this movie off in annoyance that the movie was trying to hide Elijah Wood from me so ineptly (when in fact, I DIDN'T know what the movie was trying to hide after all). I would have missed a good movie experience.