A missed opportunity to make a good film.

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2004)

The beginning of the film was very promising with a pretty interesting setting, a couple of nice scenes who put the title, maybe a bit too much, in perspective. We have a funny scene with a women trying to offer her fetish services to a tired and uncomfortable Bill Murray, who plays his role very down to earth. A second scene on a set of a commercial shoot is just hilarious. Those two scenes promise something great to come, but after 40 minutes the whole thing collapses, with terrible, pointless scenes in karaoke-bars and Japanese restaurants.
What is so irritating about the film is that the characters stay passive and dull. And while we wait to see what will happen,.nothing does. Sofia, who proved to be a great director with her previous The Virgin Suicides (1999), is 'lost' in trying to make a story credible and telling us something worth seeing for over 90 minutes. I expected a lot more from this movie, and may this film be a hint for a lot of screenwriters to take the material and do something good with it. You should pick everything up at about 40 minutes of the film. Good luck!