How quickly things change...read this after you see the movie

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2007)

I requested this title at the video store, inspired by the reviews of others here. I felt a pang when I saw the Twin Towers in an opening shot.
As for the rest of the movie, what a disappointment! Here's what went wrong for me. There was zero chemistry between Brad Pitt's character and the female lead, which left me unable to believe that these two people fell instantly in love. Despite my love of adult movie scenes, the sex in this film made me squirm. Further, the "death" character was played wrong for me. I wanted a figure who was powerful, all knowing, mystical, wise and symbolic. This guy was an annoying dolt.
I felt the director didn't know what to do with the death character, or the whole situation, and reverted back to the cliché of an innocent experiencing life for the first time, like a reincarnated caveman, someone awakening from a coma, or an alien. Even at that, let's deal with things more profound than the taste of peanut butter.
Brad's androgyny was distracting. I wanted this character to be more masculine, and every time he appeared he looked too much as if he had just stepped out of a make up and hair style chair. His puffy hair, dark roots, and harsh, artificial highlights were stiff and unmoving. I kept picturing him in a cape with aluminum foil getting his bleach job. (I tried not to look too closely to see if they had him in eyeliner.)
The sex scenes, as mentioned before, were a disappointment. The encounter was over in a flash, and done in what looked like a missionary position. He lies on top of her, she says " I enjoyed that," and a day later he's telling her he has to go away. Is this what young people expect of sex? Think of the heat Hitchcock generated with his male and female leads without even showing us much skin.
There were a few good characters here.. notably the Anthony Hopkins character and the Jamacian woman, though the gimmick of Brad speaking her dialect in an overdone way was almost racist, as if to suggest she wouldn't be able to understand standard English. Would he have gone into Eubonics with a black character? Silly stuff.
One odd observation: Brad's love interest character was eerily similar to Angelina Jolie today..cool, aloof, alarmingly thin, pampered, friendless, with full lips. To me it was sad the female lead was eager to disrobe and have sex so fast in a public place. I didn't find her beautiful or appealing, and it seemed sad that she accepted an odd stranger so quickly despite the fact that she was engaged.
Speaking of her betrothed, the man was clearly odious from the first sight we get of him, so why was she clueless to this? I guess this was a necessary plot contrivance.
Some things have changed since this flick was made, and I wanted more.
megonly