Promising, but ultimately bland

Rating: 5/10 (6 May 2004)

This film started off with a lot of promise. We were clearly and humorously introduced to the character of Andrew Largeman, a 20-something completely disconnected from the world due to a lifetime of taking prescription anti-depression drugs. However, after a certain pivotal scene in which he meets Sam (Natalie Portman), the film loses its edge and its pacing. The dialogue goes from clever to mundane and the film works too hard to *tell* rather than *show* the alleged transition that Largeman goes through. He starts as disconnected, then for awhile, becomes merely *mellow*, and then quite suddenly has an epiphany and is able to feel emotions again. Perhaps with better uses of editing, pacing, and filmmaking in general, the thawing of Largeman would have come across more successfully. Instead, I found myself increasingly disinterested with his character and began to feel like a bored psychiatrist listening to the only occasionally interesting problems of a patient. While many of the problems could have been solved better in post-production, some problems exist within the screenplay itself as it wanders around a bit too much.
It's stylistically impressive for a director's first outing (especially considering he also wrote and starred on a low budget), but I don't think it'll touch most audiences the way it obviously touches the filmmakers themselves. There's just not enough there.
It also should be noted that the performances were generally all good, especially Peter Sarsgaard as Largeman's high school buddy, and Ron Leibman's cameo as the neurologist.
Grade: C-