The first half's great. The rest isn't

Rating: 7/10 (2 March 2000)

I read the novel a year or so ago. The story seemed intriguing enough, but, while an entertaining read, it was nothing special, sorry. I saw the movie today. The story seemed intriguing enough,but, while an entertaining flick, it was nothing special, sorry. Just exactly what is wrong and what isn't with this film? The first hour is almost great,right from the very first shot. It's all very stylish, colourful,with an excellent cinematography.The Carlyle cameo is very good, the female lead is pretty wonderful, Tilda Swinton plays Sal in exactly the way I expected the character to be, and DiCaprio is not everywhere. There are flaws here and there, of course:the screenplay doesn't follows the original story too much,Leo almost gets the girl-or should I say girls?-but all in all everything's shaping up quite nicely. Then everything goes wrong,and the last 30-40 minutes are almost embarrassing, from a gung-ho Leo to the confrontation with the drug dealers-completely different to what happens in the movie-to the final escape. Here,the movie loses its balance, It's Leo,Leo,Leo everywhere, and it all goes downhill. Too bad. Still, there are some beautiful moments, the cast is pretty nice, the soundtrack is fabulous,but it could have been much much better. Rating:6 Oh, and DiCaprio is not THAT great an actor, ok?