Monday, April 04, 2005

I like it



This movie is great fun because it looks like a date flick or "chick" flick, but turns that sappy genre totally upside-down, pumps it full of crystal meth, evicerates the corpse, and force feeds you the innards in a delightfully cynical, mean-spirited manner. Jude Law is great--charming, witty, smart, and wholly amoral. Julia Roberts (of whom I've never been a fan) generates emotional weight and depth and looks better than ever. Natalie Portman--who belongs in "chick" flicks with her cheeky good looks and cute bubbliness--goes bad. But it's Clive Owen who really steals the show with a breakout performance that's equally funny and painful; this guy's got depth and sophistication and manages to generate sympathy for his character while being a right bloody bastard (tho he only bites back). So nice to see a movie which presents sex as dangerous and obsessive and painful, and shows lovely people using fucking as a weapon and a tool as much as a source of pleasure. Soon to come from Netflix: Ray, Finding Neverland, Sideways, and 2046.