Most of the others reviews here touch on the religious aspects of the movie. For me, that was utterly unimportant; it was just the MacGuffin to move the plot along. Religion really wasn't that significant. The same plot could have been advanced in any number of ways. What matters to me with any movie is the writing and acting.
The problem here is that the writing is terrible. Poor Greg Kinnear was a one-dimensional character, acting like a hapless schlub through the whole movie. That got old fast. All the attempts at humor fell flat. It was not a noir movie, not a dark comedy, just a lame comedy with no laughs in it. Or, if you will, a drama that wasn't dramatic in any way, some supposed humor tossed in. No matter how you look at it, it was a failure
There were some big name actors in the movie; I felt sorry for them. I guess they were just in it for the paycheck. There is no way they could possibly have thought the script was any good. I felt especially bad for Jennifer Connelly. Her character was ridiculous. Just over the top; not funny, not a manifestation of any deeper meaning.
About 2/3 of the way through it fell completely off the rails. Another plot line was thrown in there, I guess because the writers couldn't come up with anything else to do. That part was absurd. And not in the "absurdist" kind of good way. At that point I about gave up, but I suffered through the first part of the movie, so I forced myself to watch it all. It didn't get any better.
I see from other sites that the movie failed in the theaters and quickly went directly to video, and lost money overall. On the most famous film rating site, it gets 23% approval from both critics and audiences. I'm surprised the numbers went that high.
Avoid. Ignore the positive reviews here; they are as ridiculous as the movie was. There are too many good movies out there to waste time on this dreck.
The problem here is that the writing is terrible. Poor Greg Kinnear was a one-dimensional character, acting like a hapless schlub through the whole movie. That got old fast. All the attempts at humor fell flat. It was not a noir movie, not a dark comedy, just a lame comedy with no laughs in it. Or, if you will, a drama that wasn't dramatic in any way, some supposed humor tossed in. No matter how you look at it, it was a failure
There were some big name actors in the movie; I felt sorry for them. I guess they were just in it for the paycheck. There is no way they could possibly have thought the script was any good. I felt especially bad for Jennifer Connelly. Her character was ridiculous. Just over the top; not funny, not a manifestation of any deeper meaning.
About 2/3 of the way through it fell completely off the rails. Another plot line was thrown in there, I guess because the writers couldn't come up with anything else to do. That part was absurd. And not in the "absurdist" kind of good way. At that point I about gave up, but I suffered through the first part of the movie, so I forced myself to watch it all. It didn't get any better.
I see from other sites that the movie failed in the theaters and quickly went directly to video, and lost money overall. On the most famous film rating site, it gets 23% approval from both critics and audiences. I'm surprised the numbers went that high.
Avoid. Ignore the positive reviews here; they are as ridiculous as the movie was. There are too many good movies out there to waste time on this dreck.