Like his follow-up film, COPLAND, this film shows James Mangold to be a master at capturing lives of quiet desperation. These are people who are weighed down, either by experience or expectation, and have little to look forward to in life. In fact, they have little time to look forward to anything. The only character who gets to move on, or at least represents looking forward, is the character played by Liv Tyler. The story may lag at times, but it's honest, and while I have slagged movies that have terrible dialogue, this movie shows you don't always need dialogue to work.
