Film in the key of Middle B

Rating: 3/10 (19 August 2009)

Premise movie. Sounded good in the dorm. Played out, or forced out might be better a description, on the screen, this is banal scripting, dull direction, less than ordinary camera work. Some nice performances, however. Cusack is not one of them. He seems to be in this for the paycheck. He mugs and has all of the emotional range of a chicken. Mugging is not acting. The girlfriend is good, unknown to me and convincing, given the banal script. The balding clerk does a wonderfully ditsy nerdy turn with just the perfect physical and verbal mannerisms that make you believe he is who he is playing. His familiar mate in the record store is good at what he does, which is broad and obvious and after a time annoying. I am mystified as to how this director keeps being mentioned as somebody of import. Maybe they mistake him for somebody else?