Way overrated

Rating: 5/10 (20 November 2015)

I watched this movie because of the high rating (8.0 on IMDb - that's gotta mean something!) and was deeply disappointed. Not that it's bad - no, the acting is solid, Tim Robbins, in particular, is actually great. But the whole way the pieces of this movie are patched up together, just makes so little sense. Nothing new, nothing fresh, only overused (really really overused, even by 2003) clichés, and a disappointing ending. Now, the bad (sad, unfair) ending is not the end of the world, you might say, and that's true. But in this movie nothing makes up for it, so for the whole time you're just really expecting the ending that would bring balance to the story - and nope, there it is not. I am honestly surprised as to how many people consider it nearly a masterpiece. It deserves an honest 5/10, due to general "solidity", but there's nothing, unless you imagine it yourself, that could push it up the scale.