Can't really see what the fuss is about

Rating: 5/10 (20 March 2009)

When a film hinges on some improbable coincidence in order to push the story forward, it is generally considered bad or lazy writing... so I can't help but wonder why this film, in which the crux of the story is a gigantic, ludicrous combination of very improbable coincidences, is being regarded as a masterpiece. I suppose it still works as something of a modern fairytale, like Pretty Woman, and it definitely does have a couple of very good moments, but ultimately it was just impossible for me to take seriously such an exaggeratedly contrived story.
After it ended, my fiancée said that she was half-expecting it to end with a Usual Suspects scene, in which the whole thing would be revealed to be an elaborate tale invented for a policeman's ears by a street-hardened conman; I would have found it to be a much better film if it had been that way, actually!