Caution: "feel-bad" movie

Rating: 7/10 (22 February 2005)

I won't spell out the details, but I think some "truth-in-packaging" is called for.
In their urge to avoid spoilers, most mainstream reviewers have failed to make clear that this is a very dark-themed movie. My companion and I, having seen the trailer and read several reviews, went into this film unaware that this was not a feel-good movie. I'm not even talking tearjerker.
I'm talking bumming, big-time. This not "Rocky" or "The Karate Kid." This is not even "Love Story."
This is a feel-bad movie.
Your mileage may vary, and obviously many people liked the movie, but we left the theater with a feeling of dull despair, and, looking at the faces of our fellow theater-goers, we think we were not alone.
Call me unsophisticated, but this was not how I wanted to spend my weekend evening.