Good script and Generic direction

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2003)

Why do so many people love this movie? Yeah, Kevin Spacey is great. The script is original and clever. But, Bryan Singer's direction is completely generic. It also feels quite sexless. By this, I don't mean the movie needed a hot and heavy sex scene. It just needed ... well ... at least one believable female character in the plot; the Suzie Amis character is dull and without any personality. If this were a military or prison movie I would understand the lack of female characters, but this is supposed to be FILM NOIR! The great film noirs of the Hollywood golden age almost always had a great femme fatale in them (Double Indemnity, Big Sleep, etc.) Having gotten that out of my system, I will say this is a good movie, but will never be great movie.