Something missing....

Rating: 6/10 (24 October 2007)

Great acting and performances - fine script and dialogue - looks authentic 1981. But something just didn't work for me. I think I finally figured that it was the punchline. This is fundementally an 'American Dream' movie - nothing wrong in that, the American Dream is one of the greatest things in the world. What just doesn't gel for me in this is the version of the American dream that is sold - the greatfulness to get a zero paid job to work in a boiler room (albeit for a major player) the ceasing cheerfulness of the main character in the face of a world stacked against him. Then after all that - just the one line on the screen at the end - "and he sold his company in a multi million deal". I guess the gritty reality is kind of the point, and the magic line about the knowing to put the word 'pursuit of' infront of happiness as a right underlines this. But to me the movies end tries to marry the gritty reality we have just watched (and was very well presented) with the equivalent of the fairy tale 'and they all lived happily ever after' - there is just something about the ending that didn't feel right in the context of the rest of the story. So for me it let itself down right at the last. Glad others did enjoy it though. There are some gems in this script.