VividSimon Simply Perfect

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Jackson Booth-Millard This was an independent film that appeared in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, all I knew about it was that it had some great names in the cast, and that it was recommended by critics, so I looked forward to watching it, from director Wayne Wang (Maid in Manhattan, Last Holiday). Basically the plot revolves around characters associated in some way with each other and a cigar store in New York, all these characters and subplots are woven together and drift and swirl like ethereal smoke from a cigar. Augustus 'Auggie' Wren (Harvey Keitel) is the manager of the store who has developed a "project" where he photographs the same spot outside his store at the same time every day, and nothing in his day to day life changes until past flame Ruby McNutt (Stockard Channing) comes visiting. Paul Benjamin (William Hurt) is a writer suffering from writer's block, and he is introduced to young African American drifter 'Rashid', real name Thomas Cole (Lost's Harold Perrineau) who saves his life, and he allows the young man to stay with him, while at the same time trying to find something to write about. Ruby comes to tell Auggie that she gave birth to a daughter, and that he is the father, and she wants some money, a few thousand, to help her struggling daughter Felicity (Ashley Judd) who is addicted to alcohol and drugs, and after some time he does help her. Rashid hides a package in Paul's apartment, this is money that he stole from criminal The Creeper (Malik Yoba), who does find the apartment and threaten Paul at gunpoint before being arrested, Rashid is trying to better himself, he manages to get a job in the cigar store, and he also hangs around outside the garage of mechanic Cyrus (Forest Whitaker), who lost his left arm in a car crash with his wife. Rashid, aka Thomas, will not reveal to Cyrus that he is his son, so Paul and Auggie go along with him to the garage, and the truth does come out, Cyrus is at first very angry, but the argument settles during a lunch with him and his new family. The final scene sees Auggie with Paul in a café telling him a story that he could use in a new Christmas themed book, and he tells a story of how a young man stole from his store, dropped his wallet, and some time later he tried to return it, an old lady answered and being blind assumed it was the young man, he went along with it and spent Christmas together, before leaving he took a camera from a pile in the bathroom, and when Auggie returned the next year she had died, a silent montage sees that this tale was true. Also starring Giancarlo Esposito as Tommy, José Zúñiga as Jerry and Stephen Gevedon as Dennis. The cast all do their parts very well, Keitel being cool and collected, Hurt being concerned and suppressed, Perrineau being mysterious and likable, Channing being needy and sporting an eye-patch, and Judd being feisty and nasty. There is no specific story, but the plot is all put together very well, how the characters connect together in some way is clever, the writing is witty and all the dialogue is engaging, it reminded me of something like Clerks, a near one location film where all you need is talking, it is a really interesting a most watchable drama. Very good!

pontifikator An inspired script by Paul Auster, directed by Wayne Wang. There are excellent performances by a large ensemble cast that includes Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, and other great character actors I've never heard of.The problem with the movie is that it barely hangs together on the thread of a tobacco store. The philosophical issue is whether you think your life has meaning, starts at the beginning, goes to the end, and you get your reward; or whether you think your life is a series of happenstances that may not be related at all to what's gone before and that you don't build on, but go through and learn from. Maybe.Keitel plays Auggie, the owner of the smoke shop, and the cast of characters comes into his store and his life, and they smoke and tell stories. Most of the stories work - some of them are told, but many of them are 'shown' as the character spins the yarn. Some of the stories didn't work for me, but the promise of more kept me hanging in.This is a quiet movie, a thinker's movie. If you've lived a life that's had its ups and downs, you'll fit right in. Who knows - one of the stories they tell may be yours. And Tom Waits's "You're Beautiful When You Dream" will break your heart.Auster wrote, among other screenplays, "Lulu on the Bridge" (which he also directed), and Wang directed "Joy Luck Club" and a number of other quiet movies.

tdi-5 The casting for this movie was terrible but would have been fine for a stage production. If viewed that way it's very enjoyable but a no-name cast could have made it fly. Shame on the producers for thinking it needed help. Hurt intermittently affects an inner city accent which is somewhere between south Boston and south Bronx putting it squarely in the Atlantic Ocean. Channing is not slutty enough, probably because she doesn't try to be. Keitel coasts through his role but is never really the guide his character might be. All of the characters come across as more sophisticated than what credibility demands. It is their individual stories and their interaction which should elevate them but the director has taken that step away from us - and it shouldn't have been. I still gave it a 7 because it is a good story.

Joseph Sylvers Great script, amazing performances. Beautiful and poignant moments. Cliché's aren't bad cus they are un-true, they are bad because they are over-beaten paths to the truth. Love IS blind, but everyone's heard that so much it's lost it's meaning.Like Harvey Kietal's character who takes photographs of the same block every mourning, as part of his life's work, this film is familiar, but each moment is different and full of it's own little details.It's a very dialog driven film, lots of stories, anecdotes, and minutia throughout, everyone sounds natural and all of the actors are at the top of their game.It's easy to overlook, the little details, here which make this film much more than typical New York dramedy, but they are there, author and screen-writer Paul Auster, has an eye for detail, and for taking the stuff of melodrama and rendering it familiar yet different. If you don't catch it the first time, "slow down", and try again. What is the weight of smoke?