This review is incredibly hard to write, because, after only one viewing, I'm not sure I have a good sense of how good this movie was.
Most films are simple and easy to rate after one viewing.
But Confidential was hard to follow the first time through, mainly because the plot was complicated and some characters only appeared on-screen briefly, but were then mentioned again and again by other characters. Films like Confidential and Shakespearean films, as opposed to, say, Adam Sandler movies, improve with repeat viewings - I suspect Princess Mononoke will too. Before I delve too much into what I didn't follow, let me describe what I did get from one viewing. First off, this is a really impressive production. The artwork is original, and, at turns, breathtakingly beautiful, bizarre, powerful, subtle and humorous.