Prepare yourself for an intense movie experience!

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2006)

I agree with Monotreme02's review above that this movie is unlike any I've seen in a long time. The reviews that I had seen prior to going had prepared me for parallel stories taking place in three different times including in the future, giving it a science fiction element. But that's not exactly how it was. Like Monotreme02, I am currently at a loss to know exactly how to describe it which is why I gave it only 8 stars--I feel like I should watch it again, to peel back a few more layers of meaning. Just when you think it's one thing, then it dissolves into being something else, and nothing is quite predictable (or at least it wasn't to me). Even just before the end something happened that I totally didn't see coming, yet made perfect sense and made me chuckle to myself, not because it was funny, but because I was so delighted at having been truly surprised. The movie is over two hours long but at no time did I sit there thinking I wish it would hurry up. It wasn't until well in that things began to be revealed that gave clues as to how everything ties together, but I didn't mind at all.
The actors' performances were indeed intense, Rachel Weisz in her reserved way and Hugh Jackman as a man who doesn't have control over certain events and whose frustration you can feel simmering just below the surface until, on occasion, it erupts. I was curious to see Hugh Jackman in something other than X-Men and I wasn't disappointed. It's all in his eyes.
And it was a visual stunner. Monotreme02 above has covered that adequately, as well as the understated musical score which I, too, found to be a perfect compliment to what I was watching.
For me, the final indication that this was a movie that had had some kind of effect on the audience was the complete silence that greeted the start of the closing credits, with nobody stirring for a good minute after they started rolling, due having been riveted by what they just saw.