Not Heavy Lifting

Rating: 4/10 (1 May 2007)

Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise have so much in common with David Aames that this movie is a first: a Bi-Biopic. Roger Ebert claimed the film requires heavy lifting from its audience which only confirms that his brain is fried. Faulkner this is not. Pop-friction it is.
Only time will tell if any of Crowe's films will become timeless. However, his constant reliance on pop music to deliver the emotional climaxes in key scenes (q.v. the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations") firmly roots his movies in the Now. As a result, I am convinced the only timelessness this movie possesses is yet another Baby Boomer's narcissistic exploration of the possibility of immortality.
Yet, are we really to believe that Aames, Crowe, or Cruise would actually pull the plug on themselves? According to Crowe, sure, if their lucid dream becomes anything less than a narcissistic fantasy. And, as a GenX'er I sincerely hope it does because I dread a future with Crowe or Cruise still in it sharing with the world more biopics about their immortality.