confused kitchen sink muddle

Rating: 6/10 (21 July 2010)

Jaco Van Dormael has never met a cliché setup he wouldn't try to shoe horn into this movie. lots of setups we've seen before this time done exactly the same but choreographed to perfection, lit and shot beautifully like a car commercial, but still a cliché, and I kind of expect more from my cinema. Guy trapped in a sinking car, boy chasing a train with mother holding out hand, cryo life support pods, proms and dying wishes, every movie cliché there is all crow-bared into this film. All that money you can see on the screen, but it came across as something less than meaningful.
I'm not sure who was responsible for the music choices in this movie but they were hardly enlightened either. Tracks we've heard in a hundred other movies here to make you wince at the obviousness of their presence.
Jared Leto was also particularly bad. He wasn't once convincing. wearing a set of dark rimmed glasses doesn't make you older, he just looked like a youth with glasses and not a father of 3 with a career and wife. He's also under the miles of make up for the old guy but the thrill of that was truly killed by Brad Pitts similar exploits in Benjamin Button.
There were good performances in this. The three wives were great as were the teen actors.
I just feel disappointed after watching this. So much talent and money went into it yet it rang hollow. It did have some great ideas but they were watered down with the clichés, It had some wonderful technically brilliant camera and staging work but without the cohesive story and the average acting and cliché elements it was all weakened.
This looks like a movie where director Jaco van Dormael pulled in every favor he had owning to him, his big break movie with a ton of cash thrown at it, and he dropped the ball.