She drinks out of boredom and can't be bothered to get up in the morning. Vinnie lives in squalour and carries a whisky bottle for comfort. He hasn't combed his hair for weeks. The film's second half loses its grip. By stretching the text, Warchus and co-scriptwriter David Nicholls revert to flashbacks and home movie inserts, involving younger actors, to explain the relationship between a paranoid alcoholic, a high achiever and a lush.
Stone arrives late and steals the show.
Nolte is the least convincing, mainly because of his perfect teeth. Bridges doesn't have to try terribly hard to be watchable, and so doesn't. With the exception of Stone, who has become a loose cannon of late, much to her credit, the casting feels comfortably safe. Somewhere in the midst of this turmoil, Shepard's play lies wounded, not dead. Copyright 1997-2001 insideout.co.uk.