Matt Dillon's feature directorial debut left me disappointed. While the cinematography was good and the landscapes were interesting, I did not get the feeling that many of the actors were very connected to what they were doing. Matt Dillon did not show a very strong personal connection to James Caan (nor Caan to him)-a man he traveled halfway around the world to find, essentially to tell him that he no longer desired the life he was leading. Natascha McElhone's character seemed to fall for him very suddenly, and the whole relationship seemed as though it were added just to pass some time while plot unfolded, not as a very integral part of the plot. The only real interesting character in the film was the belligerent bartender, played by Gerard Depardieu.
The movie becomes somewhat complex, but they give you few hints to sort out the facts as you go along, and you get the feeling that everyone is lying to everyone else, which simply gets annoying. I would have liked to see this drive Matt Dillon's character as crazy as it did me, but instead he keeps it pretty monotone throughout the entire film, never showing any extreme emotion despite the extreme situations he finds himself in. The result is a movie that you lose interest in before it reaches it's climax, so that when the truth is finally revealed, you no longer care.
The movie becomes somewhat complex, but they give you few hints to sort out the facts as you go along, and you get the feeling that everyone is lying to everyone else, which simply gets annoying. I would have liked to see this drive Matt Dillon's character as crazy as it did me, but instead he keeps it pretty monotone throughout the entire film, never showing any extreme emotion despite the extreme situations he finds himself in. The result is a movie that you lose interest in before it reaches it's climax, so that when the truth is finally revealed, you no longer care.