For a while, the cast is appealing enough, and the design is House Beautiful enough, to camouflage the Fatal flaws that turn the second half into an overblown, predictable snicker-fest.
Though the explosion that seals off New York and New Jersey will have even curious theater concession stand crews bolting their posts, the characterizations are strictly low-cal.
Breaking up, jealousies, match making and a bid for second chances are the themes of this vibrant and uplifting film that explores life, love and desire.
The Jane Austen Book Club, based on Karen Joy Fowler's bestseller, offers a distinctive vision of hell - a plane of being where there are only six novels that matter, and they're consulted like all-purpose agony aunts.
I enjoyed the individual stories going on in this movie and how the characters related their own situations to the characters and situations in the novels.
If the stories sometimes use Creative Writing 101 devices (like a quasi-prophetic homeless woman), the total effect is as spare and haunting as the film's arid, beautifully shot setting.
A collection of five femme-oriented vignettes that are not intricately linked dramatically but overlap characters, this observant, emotionally acute drama is distinguished by a pronounced poetic sensibility in its writing and visual style.
It is superbly executed and, for all its pitilessness, it's an intelligent dramatization of the impact that consumerist values have had on the psyche of the North American middle class at the end of the 20th century.
Interestingly, the more overblown and insincere a performance Pacino delivers in a film, the more self-important and bouffant his hair gets. Here, it's so towering it takes up 90 per cent of the screen.
For those who like Greys Anatomy this spinoff of the series is just as enjoyable, I found seasons #1 and #2 in my local Walmart and was delighted to find season #3 at Walmart.com. I prefer to watch when I want to and commercial free, and no missed episodes, can't wait for season #4.