Tightest movie about family ever

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2009)

The punch line, if you get it, is what makes this a clean, tight story. Rourke and Tomei, or, Tomei and Rourke, have proved their abilities to pick and deliver a pivotal last word in a cinematic tale.
I was overcome when I realized this was a movie about family. I found absolutely no flaws in the logic of the character's actions. I was brought into a world I knew existed, but never experienced. The POV (point of view) brought me right into the lives of the protagonists. The clichés about happiness were eschewed in the world of this setting. This movie helps us accept that happy endings are simply a matter of POV. But the point of the movie is simply that fairy tales can be nightmares, and nightmares can be fairy tales.
This is a beautiful, and perfect, moment in story telling.