Inventive but, in the end, insubstantial.

Rating: 5/10 (24 May 2001)

Application of the sequential flashback technique is done very well for a while, and the technique as well as the protagonist's condition is cleverly exploited in several scenes to good effect. However, it seems to me that this is one of those movies that, upon additional viewings, becomes less substantial rather than more substantial. That's because the development of the characters is rather limited and the various twists of plot, done so cleverly, nonetheless fall prey to inconsistency and, eventually, little more than melodrama. There are any number of problems with plausibility that, in the end, cannot be overlooked because of the film's reliance on its regressively expanding unravelling/complication of plot, and there's not enough in the development of the characters to rescue it from the corner(s) into which it paints itself. An ambitious effort, though. Pretty good acting, too. Not sure if I'd see it again, though.