Watchable... but disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (7 January 2010)

Like many of the other comments posted here, I felt the film was okay, but hardly deserving of all the buzz it has generated. First of all, it went on for WAY too long. Scenes that went nowhere (breaking into Ryan Bingham's old high school to faun over his old basketball photos; the excruciatingly long and fairly pointless party scene where Ryan, Alex and Natalie crash a Tech Convention gala; the beat-it-over-your-head-so-you-don't-miss-the-point termination scenes where Ryan, or Ryan and Natalie, fire people from their jobs in cities all over America; and even Ryan's "What's In Your Backpack" presentations - which seemed to come out of nowhere, btw - were there only to reinforce information about Ryan's commitment to uncommitment that we already knew) were liberally peppered throughout.
Director Jason Reitman seems to be attempting to doubly imprint his style on his projects by the choice of music. Regrettably, I found many of the songs inducing the "Brechtian effect". Lyrics, intended to underscore the gravitas of the scene (I assume) tended to pry my concentration from the story in order to listen to the song. It's as if these little musical intervals are intended to force you to remember that you're watching a movie. That's fine if it's done for a reason, not so fine in a film in which the overriding goal of each song is to manipulate me into feeling some sort of emotional connection to the characters. Hey, if the story and actors aren't doing it, the music becomes just an added distraction.
I'm usually willing to buy into any premise as long as the premise is adhered to throughout the film. I felt cheated that the Alex character - Ryan's equally adrift (literally and figuratively) lover - is not that way at all. Her "reality", from which she uses Ryan to escape, is a secure nest with hubby and kiddies. I couldn't help but groan aloud at the late reveal... and, again, feel unfairly and dishonestly manipulated.
All that said, it's still a watchable flick - and likely to cause a good deal of after-film discussion... which is never a bad thing.