Cheap shots, all blanks

Rating: 2/10 (21 October 2006)

A movie with pretensions of profundity, shooting for a deep consideration of values, humanity and love, but hitting a great big sloppy marshmallow. Yes, it's clever, but in a clever-clever style, not an intellectually whimsical or psychologically complex manner. Douglas does Acting - look! Anger! Grief! Confusion! Penn does some strange parody of a nightclub singer (oh, that white tuxedo...) in a gangster movie. The only interesting moment is when van Orton pleads that the money isn't his, it's 'pensions and payrolls', a completely unrealised insight into the mythologies and hypocrisies of the economic system underpinning the movie. The script does nothing to convince, with dialogue by numbers and lots and lots of 'significant'eyeballing, or eyerolling. Even the cinematography is mundane and tired. The closing scene just offends with its 'enigmatic' quality, van Orton apparently stricken by either Botox or constipation. A hobbling attempt at the Deep and Meaningful. Avoid.