Exoticalot
People are voting emotionally.
Tedfoldol
everything you have heard about this movie is true.
william-tasker-nz
There are a lot of good dramatic performances in this film, but sadly they are all wasted since there's no point to the movie that I could discern, no consistent style or character development or anything else you might reasonably expect. It starts with an interviewee who confesses that he involuntarily calls out a ridiculous phrase about political freedom during climax, so you think - OK, it's going to be all-out Python-esque comedy, then nothing else in the movie matches that tone. It seems like a bunch of auditions for different types of movies stitched together, with an after-thought theme tacked on (a woman trying to make sense of her abandonment by a lover). Basically it's self-indulgent film-school pretentiousness masquerading as some sort of deep psychological exploration.
zee
This movie may make you want to discuss it afterward with whoever you viewed it with but it never did move me emotionally. A woman interviews a series of men for her academic research and, in between interviews, interacts awkwardly with men in her life. I enjoyed the mystery of it, as I'd not read the book, and that mystery was (for me) what the heck is this woman researcher's field and what's her thesis topic? A number of the men she interviews are a bit hideous but many are not. The most common neurotic symptom the men display is projection, and I grew a bit tired of it, feeling that yes, I'd gotten that, and you can pull out a new device now. At different times in the movie I thought perhaps she was interviewing convicted rapists at a prison (and seeing their attitudes spookily reflected in the men in her quotidian life), or men who had answered an ad regarding sexual dysfunction, or men culled from a dating service or ... well, I wasn't sure, and it was a vaguely pleasant experience puzzling about it. The answer to that mystery is disappointing and bland, by the way, so my musings probably could serve as something of a Rorschach test for me...but as a technique driving the movie (in lieu of narrative drive) it didn't work very well because the payoff was absent.I appreciate a movie that is thoughtful and isn't yet another stupid Hollywood film about crap blowing up and running gun battles, and I'll give it some stars for trying...but in the end, I found it sterile and without significant effect. In a week, I strongly suspect I'll have forgotten it. But thank you, filmmakers, for making something aimed at thinking adults rather than the adolescent/sociopath who loves watching crap blow up for the zillionth time.
artemis-23
I'm sorry, but this was the most self-absorbed, void of emotion movie I've every seen. Monologues were WAY too long and had NOTHING to do with the supposed subject and story of the movie. It felt like it was drama written for drama's sake by a Yale lit major. The idea was worthwhile (but didn't deliver any message), and some of the editing was very good and interesting, but it was so jumbled in it's presentation, that I have no idea what I'm supposed to extract from this.I couldn't wait for it to end and shuffled through the gentlemen going on and on about his father's job and through Krasinski's over-detailed description of the hippie girl's rape. It all felt like psychiatric deflection to me. And our protagonist said NOTHING. This movie wasn't about anyone or anything. I've not read any of the author's books, but somehow I can't believe the book had so little to say.
michael dye
This is an incredibly boring film.The pretentiousness is unparalleled, as other reviewers have said. There isn't anything insightful here, it's just a mismatch of overly-dramatic monologues that don't make a coherent point either individually or in the aggregate.Before I judge Krasinski (the director) for the writing, I should consult the book from which the film was sourced. But such would be too tiresome. Whatever the original text offered this film discards. It also wore me out on Krasinski. I recommend skipping this one and avoiding his other work in the future. He's just not content with the trite, but funny, Jim from The Office. This is one actor / director who wants to reach deeper and will sacrifice coherence to pretend it.
