A good and of course also original movie.

Rating: 7/10 (5 June 2012)

To be frank, I always thought that I would hate this movie, based on it that it featured a stupid concept in my opinion and because it got directed by Sean Penn, who I thought would turn this movie into something incredibly pretentious and dead serious. But of course as it turned it, it wasn't all that bad. It's a quite good movie, that still doesn't really speak to me but still remains an interesting watch.
The movie becomes interesting to watch due to the its main character. You get why he does things and sees things the way he does. You understand his motivations, whether you agree with them or not. So that makes the movie interesting to watch and all but just not a very compelling one either. At least not for me. I recognize that that's probably just my personal taste and most other people might still be grabbed by its story and all of its emotions.
It sounds strange but I probably would had exactly liked this movie more, if it was done a bit more pretentious. Some more artistic shots, some deeper meanings to some of its themes and characters. I at times missed that in this movie and feel that Sean Penn made a bit of a too mainstream movie.
Not that the movie is not original to watch though. It of course gets made interesting with its unusual story, that got based on true events, which also always makes a movie more interesting to watch, in my opinion.
Thing i didn't always liked about its story and storytelling were its many different character, that kept popping up for just a couple of minutes, before they disappeared completely out of the movie again. I get it that this was supposed to add to the sense of adventure and the feeling that the main characters was constantly on the move but it doesn't always work out too well, since the point of some of its characters just isn't always clear enough. It at times almost feels redundant and slows the movie down, also making this quite a long watch.
And just because he is Sean Penn, he got a bunch of good and big name actors to show up in this movie, which worked out positively, since everybody fitted their roles quite well. It of course mostly gets carried by Emile Hirsch but some of its supporting cast members also manage to impress, such as William Hurt and Hal Holbrook for instance.
So really, it's a good and interesting movie to watch, even though the story still doesn't really speak out to me personally.
7/10
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