Interesting but requiring subtitles for audiences in England

Rating: 6/10 (8 June 2008)

An interesting little film, with neat plot twists along the way - albeit (so far as one could establish) in a slightly contrived way. The film also concludes, interestingly, on a "difficult" debating point. However, yet again a modern American film - unlike the giants of the 1940s - falls down because the actors constantly fail to articulate their words clearly, and in this film it is Casey Affleck, with his somewhat "affected" style of speaking, who is the worst offender. It has now got the point at home that very often we have to press the subtitle switch on 'the box' in order to make heads or tails of the plots of American films, so bad and awful is the diction. And in this present film, total clarity of hearing was an absolute must in order to keep up with the eventual convoluted plot. Maybe the problem also lies with modern recording equipment in America. Nevertheless, something is wrong somewhere since we find this such a constant problem with American films, in the cinema and when watching them on the television.