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I expected this to be a stylish thriller with as many delights as The
Usual Suspects and Silence of the Lambs and Seven. I was not granted the same delights, but I was not disappointed by the film. It's a long 2 1/2 stretch with tons of stuff going on, and the exposition is very lengthy - I would say that the movie doesn't really get going until the middle of the second reel, but by then you are hooked.
Some ballsy choices in casting (like lots of relative unknowns, a refreshing change!) and a gorgeous period piece. It's slick and confident like a real Hollywood movie, but it's unpretentious considering everything it has going for it AND the fact that it's set in Hollywood! |
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The three main male characters are played by Guy Pearce (who? great!) Russell Crowe (he looks familiar - oh, he's the guy who looks a little like that guy from the Usual Suspects) and Kevin Spacey (cool - the guy from the Usual Suspects) and they are all great. How descriptive, right? Their characters, along with everyone else's, are total hard boiled cliches - but what makes the movie work is how these total types interact as we expect them to, with unexpected results and all sorts of surprises. |
| It's as if you are playing a game straight by the rules, but when you roll a 6 you move backwards 4 squares, and it makes sense. It's a complicated story, with a million characters, and from what I understand, the suits have been trying to make a movie adaptation of this book for a long time, but couldn't trim it down enough to fit, or to make sense. I guess they didn't want another Dune on their hands! But it's very interesting and it is also stylish. |
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Lucsious costumes and cars and sets and lingo, plenty of stuff you never dreamed took place in the 50's, and Kim Basinger redeeming herself by almost parodying herself. Swell soundtrack, too!
The beginning is a bit disjointed, I had written down the night I saw it, because I was being assaulted with too many story lines - but in the end, there really is just one story line. Cool. |
| By mid-movie, after I had gotten a hold on the various characters and their motivations, I wrote down "cliche and transparent." I did note that segments were cliche but the dialogue was not. Proof here that you must follow through to the end - it's a good payoff. If you leave in the middle (or go to the bathroom) you will miss something, so just don't. |
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It's very butch and manly and you can almost smell the rooms they are in. If you are turned off by lots of gunplay, well, sorry. It's all necessary. But do go see it - make sure you will not have to go to the bathroom.
And feel comfortable paying full price. It's extremely novel after the attempted stylish thrillers of recent years like the BORING Two Days in the Valley and so forth.
karina |
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