Ultimately, a bit boring, don't you think?

Rating: 6/10 (14 March 2007)

This film has a great start and a very memorable opening sequence. Our main character is on an airport track and is going forward on a conveyor belt set to a great tune. Fantastic use of the camera and a great song to go along with it, but then once you get to the movie, beyond the stylized and interesting opening, the film starts to slow down and goes on for 2 1/2 it didn't need to.
The thing that defines the film from Tarantino's other work is that is not his own creation (or his own ripoff of someone else's creation) but a legitimate adaption of a novel. Tarantino's style was never that conventional and when you see him working within conventional cofines, which is sort of what this is, despite being a vibrant-feeling piece, his whole style just doesn't work and he can't acomodate proper pacing. Tarantino's style is suited to fast-pased thrillers or just things told of out of sequence. When he tells a character-driven crime story in a rather linear matter, his very superfluous direction and writing ends up chugging the whole thing down, when it should be either speeding the thing up or directing more so its focus. The opening is more in line with his type of films, but once it gets into relationships and more complex elements of story and character, the thing just kind of drags.
It's got so much good in it, with great acting and great dialouge, but Tarantino just doesn't pace it right cause he can't handle a story of this type and the movie ends up feeling a bit boring, by the time you're finished. Still, though, it's got so much good in it, that it's not necessarily a bad way to spend an afternoon but maybe there'll be a point, where you wish it were it over, when there's probably still a good amount to go.