6/10
Too self-conscious, but a good story
28 March 2004
This is a movie that uses one of those "clever" dirty tricks that the writer ought to have avoided: It's analyzing itself so tightly that, according to its own analysis, it is necessarily a masterpiece. It's blowing its own trumpet. It's too self-aware. And the pity is that it doesn't need it. It starts out slow, but it's actually a very good story, which should have been allowed to run its course *au naturel*, without the over-analytical commentary by Critical Jim. This, for me, is the main reason why this movie fails to garner more than a 6 out of 10.

Another reason is, as I said, it starts out too slow. It takes too long to get into high gear. It has too little to engage the viewer. For half the movie, the only thing that makes you want to spend your time on it is Portia de Rossi's prettiness. To be a really good movie, it needed to have had a number of more attractive elements, be they pretty women or interesting plot turns.
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