James Gandolfini's ability to put a few twists on his hit man's role is the only thing worth watching. Neve Campbell contributes the performance of her career as another analysand to whom Macy's attracted, he hopes not fatally. The kid Pokemon trainers rush to the rescue and do battle with them. It avoids most of the cliches that afflict this sub-genre, including the one that art can be explained, especially by a damaged man who was opaque to himself and found serenity in his complex rhythmic drips of paint. It's dumb enough and tedious enough to make you wonder why the mastiff playing Spot didn't break training and run for the exit.
Effective reenactments bring viewers into the dangerous and harrowing conditions.
The story has more holes than you can drive an SUV through, including its politically incorrect view that a smart, talented, alluring woman is nothing without a man. But Judd keeps it watchable as she stumbles along the road to fulfillment. Hugh Jackman and Greg Kinnear are pluses, too, as human speed bumps. Filmed in Austin, it's also the first mainstream studio family film to be placed squarely in a Hispanic-oriented culture, adding to its cool quotient. Brosnan's pleasure in playing the anti-Bond, an opportunistic sleaze, is contagious, and Geoffrey Rush's portrayal of a dreamer turned failed spy is delicious.