Overhyped and Over here

Rating: Null/10 (15 January 2004)

I was especially looking forward to seeing this film as I am a Bill Murray fan and I was expecting something of a cross between Groundhog Day and American Beauty. Unfortunately I got nothing like it. The script is very flat (check the memorable quotes section on IMDB - does this really represent good dialogue?) and the direction was sloppy: for example, the scene in which Bob tips out the carpet tiles from the Fedex box his wife has sent. Why show us the card AND let us hear Bob reading it out loud. Couldn't we have guessed who sent them? And could they not have used a dolly or a tripod? What's the point of the handheld stuff except to induce nausea in the audience? And who lit this thing? Almost every frame should have come back from the developers with a big "underexposed" sticker on it.
I'm sorry if I missed the point. Maybe this is some postmodern thing going on where stories don't have to be engaging and frames don't have to be well-lit and composed. One consolation is that Bill Murray is receiving kudos for his performance (doubly impressive considering the poor dialogue he had to work with). Maybe people will now be able to go back to gems such as "Razor's Edge" and realise what a capable actor he is.