'big cinema' at it's best

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2002)

I had heard mixed reviews of this film... "load of rubbish", "boring", "brilliant", "bad ending", "really good ending", etc. So with a bit of coaxing I went along to see it last night.
I don't want to give too much away, but if you've seen the trailer, it tells you nothing about the true story behind the film... I expected the worst from this film, and I was pleasantly surprised when it came up trumps by not only being an intelligent and thought-provoking story, but also being extremeley well executed and 'big cinema' at it's best.
The story itself can be a little confusing at times with the amount of time jumping being done, and things being changed all the time, and I thought "oh here we go, it's gonna turn out that he's in a coma and has been dreaming the entire film", but it turns out nothing along those lines. The main hook which really pulled me in was the idea how taking people in your life for granted and not thinking about the consequences of your actions can totally alter your life... and it's one of those things that stick with you after you see the film and get's you thinking - always a good thing in my book.
Cruise was extremely believable as the silver-spoon kid who's life disintegrates round him, Cruz a little less so - a bit wooden I thought, but the winning performance for me was put in by Diaz who proves her acting talents far outshine her modelling prowess with every film (okay, mibbe not Charlie's Angels)... she is actually bloody scary in this film... majorly neurtotic, kinda like in 'Very Bad Things' - nuts.
The only bad things I have to say about the film is that it perhaps drags on at certain points and doesn't keep the tension of the movie as tight as it should be, and there's a few really twee scenes that could have been left on the cutting room floor.