cinematically well done, but not a big enough payoff

Rating: Null/10 (14 February 2007)

I saw this at a screening and while the story is actually pretty good with only a couple of holes, there is no big payoff and when the real deal is "discovered" near the end of the film, it was like oh, okay. Then you start asking your self why Virginia Madsen's character would do some of the things she did during the course of the movie. You could see it coming and it wasn't a real shock or surprise. It also wasn't as dark as the trailers made it seem. I was antsy through the first hour since it seemed to take forever to develop. There was a lot of voice-over material as well, so instead of visually seeing the story unfold, you have it read to you (It would actually work just as well as a radio show for that matter). There are a couple of interesting camera shots, some good cinematography and Jim's performance is atypical for him (in that it is not his usual comedic fare) and actually very good, but there really is nothing spectacular scene wise that warrants watching this on the big screen. rent it on a slow night.