siding with the skeptics of this movie

Rating: 6/10 (8 December 2007)

After sitting on this a while, my, this is good stuff that good movies are made of and, there are some big problems and holes, dilemma, left me siding with the skeptics of this movie.
With all this talent, with all this production, the director didn't take it anywhere important, although there were many delectable sinews to work with. Maybe the author did? The cynical point could have been made so much better and so much more rewarding. (a self centered, self serving, selfish soul makes all those souls around him as tragic as he is, even when it is Brad Pitt as a troubled, earthy, free spirit.) It dragged and there were so many things to cover better, there was no need to stretch it out and dwell. This did not result in a relaxing movie, as the ploy is supposed to and the soul of the movie wasn't intended to be so anyway. The characters didn't mesh and there was sooooo much character and actors to carry it. It seemed so much never got on film and if it did, it is on the cutting room floor.
This film left me hollow, waiting, missing something, when there are so many other gut wrenching tidbits that were only superficially dramatized, and some corny!!. There was good material here but it received only a Best Cinematography Oscar and was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Sound, ???? What a waste. It should have been much better.