A movie in reverse

Rating: Null/10 (14 March 2003)

I'm surprised this movie has received such high ratings. It's not as clever as the Director would love you to think it is- watch it once and you'll easily have it figured out. Guy Pierce is horribly mis-cast as the lead in this movie- he is NOT a leading man...as for his bleached blonde hair in the movie...well, the less said the better! He has such a banal, expression-less face and bland voice- just like he had in L.A.Confidential, another snooze-fest. In the hands of a more skillful director this could have been a much more entertaining movie. Too much emphasis was placed on the 'look' and style of this pile of rubbish. This is one of those movies that once you've seen it once, you'll probably never want to watch again. Like I already said, if this had been directed by someone like Darren Aronofsky and had a likeable leading man (at least someone with some acting abilities- not a 2nd rate ex-Australian soap actor), the maybe then this could have been a better movie. As it is, it's a bloated bore of a movie full of it's own importance and smugly smirking at it's own self-perceived cleverness and intelligence.