kostas papageorgiou

The sheer number of "best-movie-ever" and "total-crap" comments left me somewhat surprised, as I never imagined this movie to be polarizing. Myself, I find it to be an extremely charming romantic comedy with a fair amount of flaws, which did not destroy my viewing (and, dare i say, re-viewing) experience. I believe the mistake made my most people who hated the movie was thinking it's a movie about Love or Relationships, while it's clearly not. It's about Falling in love, Dreaming of love, Imagining love. And it does a pretty good job at it. I mean, comments like "he hardly knows her", "it won't work" completely miss the point: it's not about whether it'll work or not, it's just th falling-in-love part - although I could do without the wedding scenes in the end. The sexism criticism is way exaggerated: the movie IS about superficiality, and the powerful man - hot young woman pattern is the most common one, and one based on superficiality. The movie doesn't glorify it, it just uses it (eg. in the Alan Rickman - Emma Thompson story). The Hugh Grant story, however, really bombed. Grant is terribly cast, the Britain-America thing is awfully cheesy, and it goes too far to convince us it's a great thing that a Prime Minister's first priority is falling in love with his assistant. It totally lacks the simplicity and charming everyday-quality the other stories have. Btw, the Claudia schiffer thing: it's a joke, people! It's not insinuated that you should treat grief with dating a supermodel. Geez... Clearly not the best joke in the movie, but relax... And enjoy.

An amazing film, in my opinion the best of the year. Definitely better than the good but overrated Mystic River, a rather conventional film with a very awkward screenplay. Sean Penn´s performance was again breathtaking, in a far more difficult role than in Mystic River. And what can you say about Naomi... One of the best performances I´ve ever seen on screen, in an extremely demanding role. I haven´t seen Monster and don´t want to take anything away from Charlize Theron - a very talented actress -, but it´s getting so annoying to see Oscar after Oscar being awarded for "special" roles. If the trend continues, Miramax will only cast its stars as psychos, terminally ill, depressive, drug addicts, transsexuals, or 19th century Southerners (apparently they´re equally exotic for the members of the Academy, but don´t get me started on Cold Mountain...). Such low-key performances like Naomi´s will almost certainly be overlooked. Anyway, please watch this movie, I give it a 9 out of 10. Sean, Naomi and Benicio all deserve a perfect 10, as does Alejandro Inarritu for his amazing work with his actors. Moreover, please read the comments by Andrew Hutchings and AJ Smith - I couldn´t agree more with you guys. (although I don´t agree that Penn´s character is underwritten at all, AJ) Oh yes, would someone please tell Nicole Kidman she can´t play EVERY lead role there is! You´re good, Nicole, but not that good. You were great in The Hours, now please take a break, for God´s sake, you act the same in every movie. Thanks.

Philip Roth´s bestseller is an extraordinary novel. Not only the fast-paced, compact storytelling makes it a very difficult book to turn into a 100 min movie, but also the many sub-plots and exciting characters. Robert Benton and Nicholas Meyer offered viewers no alarms and no surprises: the development of the action was rather boring, and the subplots were completely lost. Still, the most annoying (and surprising) fact about this movie is its terribly miscast duo of lead actors. I have deep respect for both Sir Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, but they were a huge disappointment. Although Hopkins has the necessary vitality and the mixture of intellect and ruggedness, he seemed to be absent at times, playing with no feeling, just with his talent. And, for God´s sake, he´s got bright eyes and eyelashes! I mean, it just doesn´t fit! (By the way, an amazing performance by Wentworth Miller! And what a silky voice to go with the nickname.) As for Nicole, I still think she´s great, but also somewhat overrated. She can´t play EVERY single lead part there is!!! I seriously think that the multiple projects she works on prevent her from being able to really get into each part. Sorry, but she wasn´t at all convincing in the (extremely difficult) part of Faunia, not one second. And she over-acted, as always (except in the Hours). Overall, a movie I wouldn´t advise anyone to avoid, but don´t expect much. And read the book, it´s amazing!