Didn't live up to the promise

Rating: 6/10 (22 April 2007)

I like this recent spate of constructivist movies playing around with narrative authority, time, and memory (think of Usual Suspects, Memento, Run, Lola, Run), but this film allows two characters to prevent the suspension of disbelief. First there's Gyllenhaal's Ana. An anarchist running a oh-so-cool bakery, who then falls remarkably quickly for the nerdy, uptight IRS guy. Next there's poor Latifah, brought in to close a book buy getting the author to kill the character, an intriguing premise, but she doesn't do anything. These two characters are crucial to the plot, but they are in the end simply devices, ironic since this is supposed to be the author's (Thompson as Eiffal) masterpiece.