Much Better Than Expected

Rating: 8/10 (23 August 2004)

I wasn't expecting to like this film that much. Usually this weird, kind of off-beat movie is too . . . ummmm . . . off-beat, I guess, for my taste. I saw the preview for it and thought that Natalie Portman looked funny and quirky enough to maybe bring it up a notch. Boy was I wrong!!! I REALLY enjoyed this movie. It was still off-beat but it wasn't so much so that I had to rack my brain to figure it out. Basically, it's simple . . . sometimes you have to let people in to figure out who you are. You have to be able to laugh at yourself and be able to cry. Most of all, you need to find your "home",no matter where, who, or what that word means to you. There are parts of this movie that are just utterly . . . hopeful . . . and not in that fairy-tale, Disney kind of way. Don't get me wrong, there are still little annoying things in this film (isn't there something in every one) but it's nice to leave a theater feeling good about life,for once, no matter how screwed up it may be.