Have you taken your mescaline today?

Rating: Null/10 (14 May 2004)

Before I comment on the film itself, let me say this:
SOMEONE WAKE UP MARK RUFFALO, THE CAMERA IS ROLLING!
(I've sat thru so many of this guy's sleepwalk/mumble performances I'm almost as sick of him as that stubbly dwarf Colin Farrell. Have an espresso, Mark!)
If you never got over dabbling with hallucinogenics, if you thought the film version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was too conventional, then ESOTSM is your movie! It's a 21st Century light show for people who long for the 60's.
Let everyone else beware, however. The movie is mostly downbeat and relentlessly grungy (Carrey is scruffy personified, Winslet looks like a punk peacock) while the director and writer take non-linear narrative to new heights of confusion.
Since everyone knows the plotline I won't regurgitate it. But, and let the buyer beware once again, the story shifts are so convoluted that at about the 45 minute mark--and continuing until the last 15 minutes, it's painfully, painfully obvious that the writer and director have completely lost control of the film. So what you get for over an hour is special effects, trick photography, confused symbolism and Kirsten Dunst jumping up and down on a bed. If that's enough to float your boat, time your drugs so you peak about 40 minutes in--and enjoy the movie.