Powerful

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Admirable film.

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.

Personal Effects is a tedious and redundant movie which is finished with a weak and forced conclusion.Big part of the movie is focused on the romance between a young man and a mature woman, something which frankly did not interest me at all; and during the rest of the time, we contemplate their bitter lives, something which interested me even less.I appreciate the fact that Ashton Kutcher decided to explore new creative horizons taking a dramatic role such as the one from this movie.The truth is that he has cultivated such an image of a jester on his career as well as on his personal life that I thought it was going to be impossible for me to accept him as a man tortured by his past.However, I have to admit he made a competent work for most of the time, and I generally found him credible on his character.Nevertheless, the screenplay occasionally requires too much from him and he could not always comply.That happens on the manipulative scenes in which we are supposed to feel the pain from his character while he is using a chicken disguise (long story).Even though Kutcher tries to apparent gravity, the result is involuntarily laughable.Now, to be honest, I doubt that even Philip Seymour Hoffman or Chiwetel Ejiofor (just to mention two of my favorite actors) would have fared well from those ridiculous situations.As for Michelle Pfeiffer, she does what she can with her hollow character.This excellent actress showed in many occasions during her career her huge talent to find the precise tone which makes her performances not only credible, but also absolutely natural.There are some glimpses of that ability in Personal Effects, but unfortunately, the screenplay does not support her too much.Besides, director David Hollander could not generate the necessary energy in the movie, because his work feels cold and lacking of passion.I have may become too cynical.The drama portrayed in this movie may be more resonant to people who, at my difference, are not tired of pretentious and "deep" films which use easy tragedies as substitutes from the real drama (calling director Alejandro González Iñárritu...).I find it to be significant the fact that Personal Effects is based on a short story written by Rick Moody, who was also the author of the book The Ice Storm, which was adapted to the cinema on an homonym excellent film directed by Ang Lee in 1997.In that movie, there were not any apparatus tragedies or unexpected violence...just the unbearable suffering of the marital unhappiness and the existential frustration.And that was more than enough.Personal Effects could not achieve even a pinch of that level of impact with its tragedies.So, needless to say I do not recommend this mediocre and boring film called Personal Effects.

Michelle Pfiefer, a wonderful actor, was awful. She didn't react much to anything that happened in the story. Kathy Bates had nothing to do. Taking part was a waste of her time. Ashton Kutcher really doesn't act. The story parts were a jumbled up mess like pieces of puzzles that came from different boxes. Could this movie be fixed? I doubt it. It should never have been made at all. Why are there good screenplays that never get off the shelf and something like gets made, including some good actors. Why did they even consider taking part after reading the first ten pages? The pieces of the story, the camera work, the characters were all in a fog. "Pieces" keep coming up as I write this. The story is filled with pieces that don't fit together. They don't make a good fractured story line either. Nothing could fix such a mess.

What can you say about a movie that deals with 2 murders, a rape, mental disorders, emotional issues, deafness and the prison with the hero in a chicken outfit saying "What the Cluck?!"?You laugh. But you're never sure whether you're supposed to. Is Kutcher's character funny, stupid, mentally/emotionally challenged, all of the above? You're never really sure. Maybe it's supposed to be more realistic that way but it just comes across as confusing. Lost souls, a woman and her son who lost their husband/father to violent death become enmeshed in the life of a young wrestler who lost his sister to rape & violent death. Yes, it's an excuse for groping make-out scenes between the older woman (Michelle Pfeiffer looking like a trailer tramp) and the young wrestler (Ashton Kutcher). Hard not to draw connections to Kutcher's real life marriage to Demi Moore, much older and former wife of Bruce Willis. It takes courage to boink where Bruce has boinked before and it took courage to make this movie. But it's hard to follow why in both cases. "What the Cluck?" indeed

The twenty-four years old wrestler Walter (Ashton Kutcher) leaves the national team in Iowa and returns to his hometown after the brutal murder of his twin sister Annie (Sarah Lind) to support his mother Gloria (Kathy Bates) and his niece. When he goes with his mother to the therapy, he meets the widow Linda (Michelle Pfeifer), whose alcoholic husband was murdered by his friend in a bar. Linda has a deaf and dumb son, Clay (Spencer Hudson), who misses his father and has a repressed anger against the killer, and works in the Southside Community Center organizing weddings for needy people. They befriend each other during the trials and Walter invites Clay to join the local wrestling training. While waiting for the jury verdict of their cases, Linda and Walter have a love affair and Linda falls in love for him. However, their relationship is deeply affected when the verdict of Annie's trial is that the accused is not-guilty. "Personal Effects" is a powerful drama and love story with a good development of the both lead characters. The beauty of Michelle Pfeifer is still astonishing and she does not seem to be fifty-one years old. Her chemistry with Ashton Kutcher is fantastic and I liked very much their performances. Kathy Bates has a minor participation and the unknown Spencer Hudson completes the great cast. Unfortunately, the last scene with Walter with a wounded leg spoils this great drama. It seems to be the typical interference of the producer to give a commercial end to please the average audiences that claim for a happy end. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Por Amor" ("For Love")