Overrated

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Good concept, poorly executed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I'm not really sure why I had this film on my Netflix list, except that I like David Duchovny and Julianne Moore. They can and have done much better than this.Duchovny and Moore play Tom and Rebecca Pollack - he's a house husband, having just quit advertising, and she's a well-known actress rehearsing a play in New York. Her brother Tobey (Billy Crudup) is in a long-term relationship with a fledgling writer Elaine (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and they're all best friends.Tom wants sex more than Rebecca does; Elaine wants to get married and have a baby, but Tobey doesn't seem ready. He seems overly concerned with the fact that they're all going to die someday.Tom drifts into a relationship with a divorced mother of one of his son's friends, and Tobey and Elaine finally break up. The movie concerns them all trying to find their way back to one another. I found it pretty dismal.There are some good scenes, two in particular: the beginning of a romantic evening when Rebecca, on her last night of eating carbohydrates, stuffs a huge piece of cake down her throat; and Tom's confessions, true and not true, to a sex addicts group. Both very good.There are several cameos in the film, one by Garry Shandling and one by Ellen Barkin, as well as some recognizable New York actors. The New York location shots are all great, some taking place in my old neighborhood.This is a good cast stuck with a weak script and shallow characters. They do the best they can, but it's an uneasy mix of drama and comedy. The ending is lame. Disappointing.

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this movie and as it started I had no idea which direction it was heading to. At first it really seemed like the movie wasn't going to do anything good or interesting with its story but once it does, the movie gets a quite good one to watch, within its genre and I simply really enjoyed it for what is was. What I like about this movie is that it never becomes a melodramatic or sappy one, like movies like this often tend to do. The situations and characters within this movie are being kept mostly real and so are all of their emotions and feelings. This is the foremost reason why I kept liking this movie throughout. I liked were the story was going and the overall message of it.Yes, it still also really is a comedy though, so some of the situations and characters are still being exaggerated for comedy effect. But just like its drama, the comedy never pushes it too far, until its end, when the movie suddenly becomes more goofy. But overall I still really liked the balance between the comedy and the drama of this movie.Thing that also truly keeps this movie interesting and good to watch is its cast. It really has a surprisingly good cast in it. Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, David Duchovny, Billy Crudup, Ellen Barkin, Bob Balaban and Eva Mendes all in one movie. That's quite amazing actually for such a low-key movie as this one. Every actor was fine within their role but the one that stood out most to me was David Duchovny, who is trying so hard the last couple of years to become a legit actor after his "X-Files" fame. He had an hard time getting rid of his image but if he keeps on playing like he does in this movie, he should be alright.I can still see all of this movie its flaws, such as some story issues and some misplaced comedy at times but as an overall experience, I surprisingly liked this movie and I honestly liked it better than just the average genre attempt.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

The worst part of this movie is how talented the cast is in everything else they've appeared in. In this, they are smug, self righteous and annoying. The main problem is, that they are trying to act like "normal people" and some of the most talented actors, just can't pull that off. Philip Seymour Hoffman can definitely pull it off. Paul Giamatti can pull it off. These actors appear uncomfortable and really boring trying to be "regular" people in unusual situations, but even the situations are not that usual. The minority of people watching movies are actors or authors or whatever, so these situations don't ring true and as the most annoying of all, Maggie Gyllenhall comes across as giggly and stupid, something that is sad to watch, given how talented she is. Trust THIS woman, do NOT watch this movie!!!

I cannot tell if I was just in a laughing mood when I watched this movie or if it was just really well acted with witty dialog and situational humor. I figured this would get some harsh reviews from people who just wouldn't give it a chance because they think they know something more about 'cinema' than the rest of us and they have to voice it by tearing apart 99 percent of movies they watch. Don't get me wrong most Hollywood movies do suck and are forced out there without thought but Duchovny and Crudup were a lot funnier than I thought they could be with Gyllenhall putting in a strong performance as usual. I actually laughed out loud in a couple sequences including the confession of a sex/deli meat addict and the reference to the sprockets from SNL.