Reviews

Watch this movie - it takes some effort to "get into it", but the experience is worth it. The suspension of disbelief required to accept the story is not insurmountable, the acting is careful and at times, exquisite, and the direction/editing was superb. A thoughtful, interesting effort with a rich fabric of themes.

Reading the other comments about this movie in the IMDB, provides some insight into what is most wrong with the American film industry - the American audiences! This movie was extremely well acted - the central roles played by Harrison Ford & Kristin Scott Thomas could not have been better casted. It was craftfully directed, and the story unfolded at an interesting pace - in a manner that both allows and requires you to think about the relationships that surround the pivotal plot event, a plane crash that reveals an illicit affair. The betrayals and reactions to them are hard to watch, but they're plausible. In fact, while the incessant, almost obsessive pursuit of details by the betrayed husband, Dutch, apparently made some of the reviewers uncomfortable, it was a likely reaction - especially given that it challenged not only his role as a male and husband, but, perhaps more, it brought into question his savvy and astuteness - not an easy thing for a police investigator. But then again, no buildings blew up, there was no gratuitous sex, and it didn't have a happy ending - all of which seem to be ingredients for blockbuster American films.

I have to admit that I watched this the first time because of my admiration for the performances of Sophie Marceau. I watched it several times more because of the interesting portrayal of the power of desire presented by oustanding acting and a rich "period piece" production. Should your friends belittle the story as formulaic and the ending as too easy, ignore them. They have missed the richness of the flow of events in this movie that portrays a more repressed world where women (and, to a lesser degree, men) had different and more limited options and necessarily pursued their opportunities differently. This movie was so well done, it leaves you wishing it were an hour longer.

Great twist on the "corrupt prosecutor gets his just-due" genre. Yancy Butler plays Sandy Dickenson, a wrongly convicted mother - released from prison by corrupt prosecutor Frank Sutton(running for higher office) played by Barry Flatman, who extorts her into giving false testimony to convict a crime lord to bolster his political standing aided by a gullible police detective David McCoy, played well by David Nerman, who Sandy seduces and manipulates into pursuing prosecutor Sutton....and with the help of Sandy's prison acquaintance con-family Sandy pulls off the ultimate "con". The pace & film-making qualities of this movie are impressive, as is the editing. The best part is Yancy Butler's star-turn performance - her best to date.

This witty reverse road show tale ("On-the-Road-to-Let-me-Out-of-L.A.")puts an engaging comedic slant on the well-worn industry-weary angst of trying to "make it" on the L.A. entertainment scene. Charles Klausmeyer as the "thoroughly-fed-up-with Tinseltown" Joe Kasko plays his exasperation to the hilt...the problem is, he finds getting out of L.A. (with sidekick Brad, played to the rafters by Jamie Kennedy)to be more exaspertaing than staying, as every circumstance holds him back. Gabriella Lamiel (as the enticing love interest, Taylor)almost proves to be the circumstance that keeps the seriously cynical Joe from fulfilling his crusade to abandon the despair & disappointment of the treacherous L.A. grind by traveling to the remote native Indian community of "Flin-Flon" in remote Canada. Shot entirely in a quirky, documentary style, this film, with its well-directed, multiple changes of scene, pace & tone,(and a less-than-predictable-ending)holds your interest and most importantly....it's funny.