The Little Film Noir That Couldn't

Rating: 5/10 (12 January 2009)

I had to give it 5 for the excellent performances given by everyone but Brad Pitt. At first, I gave Mr. Pitt benefit of the doubt that he was aware of some flaws that I was not privy to in the character he was playing. Then I realized he just wasn't giving it his all. The fact that so many other reviewers gave him kudos tells me that intellectually Americans have fallen way behind in what they look for in a film. We truly are just about 'action, action, action' as Marlene Dietrich once said. Maybe that is why foreign film is so much ahead of us. Too many Americans have been raised on 'TV Movie of the Week' and 'Murder She Wrote' as their mother's milk. They simply don't look for nuances in character and personality. Underplaying is much more difficult that overplaying. Mr. Pitt does a ham actor's job of it. This isn't the first time I've witnessed his gross inability to reel in his own personality. He keeps playing Brad Pitt, bad boy of film as if flip dialog and pouting and shouting can make him the next Brando. It's a shame, but the ending fails enormously and I think was predictable. Hitchcock has nothing to worry about even from the grave. Mr. Pitt would make a much better scandal rag subject or part-time male model.