Ponderous and pretentious

Rating: 5/10 (25 May 2012)

I consume many movies and love all types of movies. Here are the warnings to anyone before they watch:
Voice over is warning number one. A proper movie needs nothing else. Film noir uses it to entertain us with written source- not explain what is going on. 3 hour length is warning number two. Comedies can be one hour plus; great films can push to 2 hours plus (this is based on biology, not culture). The pacing of this film is inexplicable. It serves no purpose, so earns the adjective, "pretentious". Sam Rockwell/Charly Ford is the most interesting actor/character is warning number three. Brad Pitt is great, but in the end, not the real story. Casey Afflek is overwhelmed. He does some good and interesting things with the character, but they are buried in the 3 hours of footage. If somebody put a camera on my face for 3 hours, I would (accidentally) come up with some pensive/expressive/interested facial expressions/voices. Doesn't make me an actor. This is a great story and a great idea for a screenplay and it has solid professional actors in it. In this case, I would just judge that the director screwed it up. On this site, fans try to diminish the critics. I love westerns, I love art films, I love Brad Pitt, ...... I just don't love this film