Brandon at Random Reviews

*spoilers* *language* *rambling*

I’m gonna level with you, there are some movies I might be too stupid to wrap my head around. Straight up. These artsy/indie style pictures sometimes go way over my head and leave me wishing I wasn’t such a dumb piece of shit. But what can ya do?

I’ve gotta say, this flick was weird as shit. Phillip Seymour Hoffman put on a great performance as always, but it’s so fucking hard to figure out what’s going on. Like you’re watching it through the lens of Hoffman’s character. He’s clearly like batshit crazy and has all these health issues and shit and he’s a hypochondriac. You see this weird scene in the beginning where he’s shaving and the fucking faucet breaks and he cuts himself all to shit. Then like 2 minutes later his wife has left him and taken their child with her and they just kind of mention it in passing? What the shit?

There are just like huge jumps in the timeline without any of the normal cues to help the viewers understand that it’s happening. What in fuck’s name is this shit? You sometimes have to pick up on people being made up to look older just to realize there are great leaps in time happening. Hoffman’s character is so actively unlikeable as well, so seeing him react to everything doesn’t really do much and it’s all you have to go on.

I think the biggest issue other than the time jumps and an unlikeable protagonist and overall confusion with the plot was hopefully my overall dumbness or my brain’s unwillingness to comprehend everything.

Don’t see this. It’s pure art-house garbage. There is no big enjoyable revelation that pays off in the end. The ratings sites and critics will tell you it’s super-duper terrific and all that, and maybe you’ll like it. But for me it was a big fucking no thanks. Hoffman’s performance is the only leg it has to stand on. If you wanna see something good that was written by the same guy try “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”

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