Complete waste of time

Rating: 3/10 (19 February 2008)

I should have known better than to waste my time, being no fan of Paul Thomas Anderson, but my wife and another couple wanted to see it, since it is the odds-on Oscar favorite. But this movie was even worse than I expected: turgid, overblown, poorly directed and edited. Way too long, with a soundtrack that has to tell you every minute how important the movie is, poor character development, especially in motivation understanding. All four of us came out of the theater, looked at each other and said "Well that sucked". Anderson seems way too impressed with himself to spend any time with the real work of directing. The contrast between this movie and "No Country For Old Men" is stark, and "There Will Be Blood" suffers greatly in comparison. I'll really be upset if TWBB wins Best Movie and Best Director this year.