BRILLANT...NOT !!!

Rating: 5/10 (20 October 2003)

I really wanted to like this movie but, this movie is so mediocre that is even hard to write a review about it. What the fuss is all about is beyond me. The performances are mediocre at best, with the exception of Tim Robbins which puts out a great one. Starting with Marcia Gay Harding, when they get into the 'vampire' dialog it is hard not to laugh at her. Then there is Laura Liney, why she thinks that people in Boston speak like southerners??? Then there is the editing, this movie just does not flow right, I can't put my finger on it other than it is all wrong. Then the music, it reaches crescendos at the most inapropriate times and then we have a couple of blues tunes courtesy of Kyle Eastwood that should have been left in the trash bin.
I was really psyched to see this movie, I had read the book and eventhough the book is not well written, the basis of the story is very good and I thought it would make a great movie, ohhh but leave to the screenwriters of this dog to screw that up, even the ending is all wrong. In the book there is a real reason about why the girl is killed, in the movie they change it to a bogus reason, read the spoiler at the end. Do yourself a favor, skip this turkey. This is 5/10 and I am being generous.
SPOILER
The reason the girl is killed is because the mute brother of her boyfriend does not want his brother to marry her and leave the house since he is very attached to him, thus he kills her. In the movie they make it an accidental shooting and they top it off with an accidental beating????????????? Talk about extreme PC towards mute people.