Le Divorce/The Housekeeper/American Splendor/Open Range

Roger Ebert: [discussing "Gigli"] Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been excoriated by the nation's film critics, who unleashed a withering barrage of scorn, and what I wanna know is: Why were they so mad? "Gigli" doesn't work, that's obvious, even Affleck said so in an interview in Variety, but it's an ambitious movie that tries to do something new. Rather than be a routine romantic potboiler, it surprises us by making Lopez a lesbian and letting the two of them talk frankly about their sexual identities. J-Lo and Affleck took a chance, and critics slapped them down, but the movie is quirkly and offbeat and never boring, and it can't possibly be the worst film in any year where we're still waiting for "The Brown Bunny".

Richard Roeper: Well, I can tell you why we're so mad, many of my fellow critics, is we had to sit through this garbage. And yeah, it tried to do something different, but they failed so spectacularly and so miserably and in such, I think, a condescending and smug...

Roger Ebert: Good Lord!

Richard Roeper: ...and arrogant way, where J-Lo has the camera focused on her while she's doing her yoga positions, so we can see she's in great shape. And Affleck is doing this cheap Jersey accent. Roger, it's an awful film.

Roger Ebert: You know, it's frequently the case in movies that the camera focuses on actresses so that we can see that they're in good condition. They made a bad movie, they did NOT commit a crime.

Richard Roeper: Well, they committed a cinematic crime, and I find them guilty.