The movie was fairly charming, but ultimately the filmmakers couldn't reconcile the satirical tone of the comedy portions with the more standard drug story tone.
Joaquin Phoenix is at his best when he isn't speaking, but lots of his lines were flat or inaudible. Anna Paquin was just plain weird, I can't explain it. She seemed like she was trying to be very intense but she wasn't particularly good. It almost seemed like she was on cocaine or something.
Ed Harris and Scott Glenn were both very good. It was fun to see Ed Harris in this type of comic role.
I ended up feeling like this material probably worked well in the book (haven't read it) because novels seem to be more amenable to having comedy side-by-side with action. Movies are fine for blending the two, but when they don't synthesize the disparate tones they just seem like they don't know what they want to be when they grow up.
All in all it's more interesting than a lot of movies, but it misses the mark.
Joaquin Phoenix is at his best when he isn't speaking, but lots of his lines were flat or inaudible. Anna Paquin was just plain weird, I can't explain it. She seemed like she was trying to be very intense but she wasn't particularly good. It almost seemed like she was on cocaine or something.
Ed Harris and Scott Glenn were both very good. It was fun to see Ed Harris in this type of comic role.
I ended up feeling like this material probably worked well in the book (haven't read it) because novels seem to be more amenable to having comedy side-by-side with action. Movies are fine for blending the two, but when they don't synthesize the disparate tones they just seem like they don't know what they want to be when they grow up.
All in all it's more interesting than a lot of movies, but it misses the mark.