Certainly an Oddity

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2006)

This movie is kind of a weird one for sure. I will start with the negative because the movie starts off rather slow and stupid. I remember sitting there watching and thought this is probably the biggest waste of time I could have ever encountered and had the movie continued in it's lacadaisy ramblings it would have been. There was one scene where Jared Leto and Jenn Connelly disable an alarm and sneak onto a roof top and upon coming back inside set the alarm off and escape out the way the came in..Whoa what rebels..And all that to talk and fly paper air planes. Also another short fall is Jared Leto's accent which is New York then it's Boston then it's nothing Ellen Burstyn seems to have the same problem. The directing I find to be annoying as well. They have this scene they use when the characters take drugs and after the first 10 times it kind of gets a bit much. After the other 50 times it gets rather annoying. The end was a bit much as well. The director uses a technique where the lives and situations of many characters are building up to a point such as you would see in, say, call it murder (1935 I think) with Bogart. Done correctly this is rather a neat effect. Instead here it is done way to fast to the point where you could have just blacked out the screen and got the same effect. It was a bit over the top as well as the braking up the screen into 2 or 3 mini screens. That being said when this film takes off it takes off. The performance of the characters as well as how far and fast their lives are sinking is incredible. I have never seen a movie with so many (in my opinion) negatives and yet still blow you back in your chair. After watching you will say holy smokes did that really happen. The remainder of the film is highly intense to the point where it pulls it up out of the hole and turns into a must see for anyone as well as a film you'll want to add to your collection to view again.