Not bad, but not that good

Rating: 6/10 (26 November 2006)

I am totally puzzled as to why this film is so highly rated. It is reasonably well made, has a very good cast, and it held my interest. However, it has nothing new in it. It wasn't fun. It wasn't life changing. It didn't make me want to be a better person. None of the characters in the film were particularly appealing. The protagonist's method for escaping from prison was obviously not new, since he flashed his copy of "The Count of Monte Christo." There was an unusual directness in confronting gay rape in prison, but I find it to be not that compelling a subject. I guess that leaves redemption. To me, he paid way too high a price for thinking about, but not actually, killing his wife. After she cheated on him. Perhaps the point was that he felt so guilty about her death, he wanted to be punished. By spending twenty years getting raped in prison? That's not punishment, it's just sick.