smart, moody, doomed to under-appreciation

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2000)

I hope I'm wrong about the under-appreciation. But it seems that a cross-genre movie like this one is likely to leave a lot of people feeling unsatisfied. The two genres are drama (melodrama?) and superhero. It isn't clear for most of the movie just how much of a role each genre plays in this film. It's much more of an adult drama than a superhero movie, so comic book fans may feel bored and under-stimulated. And yet, the superhero aspect is ultimately so important that less fantasy-minded viewers may have trouble suspending their disbelief. This film is made for people who, on the one hand, believe in the importance of pop culture and the reflective importance of the sort of media that the literati may conventionally think of as "low art": comics, music videos, science-fiction stories...and, on the other hand, the same people must be in touch with the difficulties of a real life, a life where any fantastic or possibly fantastic elements are typically eclipsed by harsh realities: disease, serious injury, divorce, and the regret of having made a very wrong and very important decision many years ago.
Despite a few painfully obvious flaws (the titles at the beginning and the end being the worst), this film is a beautiful work, an engaging story that floats on a fine mixture of sadness and bittersweet hope.