A good film if you approach it with the right attitude

Rating: 9/10 (23 November 2001)

I really liked this picture, which is interesting, because I tend to agree with a number of the negative comments I've read on this board. Many have complained that the movie is redundant and too long (three hours!).
Whether, the movie is too long is, of course, a matter of perspective. I enjoy three-hour baseball games. Why not a three-hour movie? The question is whether one feels that the three hours were well spent--and that depends on what one expects out of those three hours.
If one is looking for a tight movie where characters set their course based on one conversation or one event, then skip this one. If you are open to characters that are somewhat more complex and need to hear the same thing in more than one way to get the message, then you just might enjoy this film.
Also, if you're looking for a love story balanced by an action film (Titanic, Pearl Harbor), then, again, you will be disappointed. I think studio marketing departments have figured out that guys like action films and women like love stories, so they try to blend the two in order to maximize box office. This film pretty much ignored that.
This film deals with a number of relationships among a number of people and their relationship with "death". I won't list them all, but at the conclusion of the film, I felt as if I knew these people. I liked many of them, and I felt they had depth to them. From the dialog I constructed their pasts in a way I tend not to with movie characters. These people stayed with me. If you give them a chance, they might stay with you as well.