Thehibikiew
Not even bad in a good way
Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
petwolf
There isn't much new I can add about this film. Take everything negative from the other reviewers and multiply it by ten. Whichever angle I look at it from (script, camera, acting, story, etc.), I can't say anything positive about it. The most incredible thing is that JB took on this role! What was she thinking!? Perhaps a new title "Die ALREADY!" would help. If you like art-house, DON'T watch this movie. If you DON'T like art-house, definitely give it a miss. The Teletubbies have more substance than this fart-house production. You've been warned. Go and have a root-canal procedure instead - it will be a pleasant experience in comparison.
Aristides-2
A Cliché wrapped in an Amateur swallowed by a Poseur. ...The "laughter" of a sophisticated Binoche when a banality is uttered. ...The inexperienced director telling or allowing Reilly to play cute. ...The Reilly character not doing or saying anything in the presence of a person who plans on killing the 'father' he loves. .....Turturro embarrassing himself with the poetry bit (well, he does have a right to earn a living). .....Poor Nolte allowing himself to be photographed without heavy diffusion lenses. ....."Sincere" Nolte playing a beseeching scene with his daughter proving to the viewer that he's a sociopath. .....Clever Turturro being able to smuggle a huge cache of guns, ammo and a ton of sophisticated electronic equipment from France to Italy. .....The young girl, a geese shepherd, with a surprising knowledge of revolver and semi-automatic pistol use. .....Gee. The two kids go from her being hostile to him and then having sex. But millionaires to be, they talk about spending the rest of their lives together! ..... Also: what are we to say about the writer/director whore using 9-11 as a hook? And so on, ad-nauseum. I ask you: how does swill like this get produced?
David Eastman
Despite a very good cast and a clever idea, this film never happened. The acting was good but the director was self-indulgent with his filming technique.The film was slow and built no tension, and by time Nick Nolte arrived, the film had already died on its backside. The film wasted time on juvenile political discussion. I literally thought that the American boy would accuse the French girl as being a cheese eating surrender monkey, but of course they just fall in love! Every single role was unoriginal from John Turtoro's poetry reading psycho to Juliet Binoche's cool french spy. Given such an important political possibility, the film said absolutely nothing.
derek-347
I don't understand why a few people are raving about aspects of this movie - are they related to the film in some way perhaps? - because I really wanted to like this after everything I've heard, my love of French cinema, and the fact that John Turturro is one of the best actors out there. I won't give away any spoilers, but frankly, don't bother. I'm not sure who coined the description "thriller" for this but it ain't. And frankly there's nothing else in the movie to redeem it, everything gets at best nine out of ten. The actors turn in performances that they were asked to do - you can't really fault them here - but the director's pointlessly obsessive playing around with the focus is at best irritating, but mostly just tiresome. The word "dilettante" springs to mind. There isn't anything to "get" here that you might think you're missing, and anyone who puts this in the same category as Pulp Fiction or any other movie with a semblance of action, humour or even a decent narrative, doesn't know what they're talking about. Even the romance isn't worked properly. Sorry to disappoint, it's always a good thing for somebody's pet project to reach the screen, particularly a serious French attempt at grabbing an international audience, but this movie is ruled by a director who needs a tougher producer and an editor who has the capacity to say "no" more often.
