Excellent film, great mix of apt filmmaking, artistic vision and metaphysics

Rating: 8/10 (31 January 2011)

This is a n excellent film. As we first started watching it, I must admit, I was somewhat skeptical given the title. I thought this would be another "artsy" mambo-jumbo where a self-indulgent indie director who just happened to finish a book by Hugo has taken upon him/herself to educate the masses on their pathetic, meaningless everyday lives (preferably set in suburbia). Boy, was I wrong! And so glad I was. 20 minutes into it, having watched the early life sequence, I was fully submerged. It wasn't just the story - the set, colors, music, camera, scene pacing - all came together beautifully to convey the deep philosophical and artistic vision of the director. This is undoubtedly the "director's film". It is one of those films, which is hard, if not impossible to retell, and once watched, makes the viewer to watch it again, and again, enjoying every single scene. This is a director's film and of a capable one. Bravo!
The only downside (and given the nature of the story a minor one) is weak acting by Leto. I've never been a big fan of this actor, and maybe unjustly so, but his youthful innocence sprayed all over the screen really doesn't fit the story well. This is a minor bump though.