Pretty good, but could have been better

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2006)

I thought the movie was pretty entertaining as a piece of fiction. Sure it had its flaws, but on the whole it could have been a lot worse. The major flaw, i found, was that it lacked any real build-up to climactic events. It seemed as though Ron Howard made the film under the supposition that everyone has read the book (which wouldn't be all that inaccurate). Therefore he didn't give the turning points the proper feeling of anticipation and build as the book did. I never felt as though the characters were ever making any revelations with the story. It was delivered all-in-all rather blandish. The music didn't help with this either. I felt the music to be rather boring. The most notable example would be the car chase scene where Sophie and Robert escape in Smart Car. Where was the exciting music? It was cut together in an exciting way with fast pace cuts, but the music was lagging. It seemed as though Howard was treating this film as a drama/thriller rather than the fast paced high intensity popcorn entertainment piece the book offered. The result- a fairly light entertainment film that could have been a lot more entertaining!!! But worth seeing non-the-less.