Upon seeing the trailer for this movie, I really wanted to see it. It seemed like a gripping ride, starting with an intriguing unsolved Hollywood mystery, and using an all star cast, Josh Hartnett still hot from a twisting "Lucky Number Slevin", Aaron Eckhart walking tall after "Thank You for Smoking", and Scarlett Johansson after every movie she touches, not too mention the appearance of much Academy-loved Hilary Swank. Sounds great doesn't it? Yeah...the cast list is probably the best part.
I don't know if I can completely fault the cast for this one, although their agents deserve a bit of a beating. The acting was decent, Eckhart became over the top as the movie continued, while Johansson and Swank seemed under utilized. The movie fell on the shoulders of Hartnett who couldn't manage to drag the lifeless movie for the entire 2 hours.
After suffering through the two hours I quickly checked to see who did this screenplay, since I found it to be the true fault of the film. It took me no less than 2 minutes to realize the error of my ways. We had none other than Josh Friedman to thank for this clunker. If you weren't sure who that was, he's the same writer that gave us the glorified crap that is "War of the Worlds". If Friedman's goal is to work with great directors like Spielberg and De Palma, only to tarnish their reputations then he is achieving that goal. Why these directors choose to work with him, baffles me, he must have friends in high places.
Despite being a very visually pleasing movie, a beautifully illustrated film noir, at times I felt that De Palma's directing faltered. Most notably a portion of the film shot in the first person, that reminded me of the Christopher Walken SNL sketch "The Continental", and actually, I would have rather watched that, since that would have at least been funny.
In all, don't waste your time. If you like other De Palma films, such as "Scarface" or "The Untouchables", go and revisit those films. I can only hope his future projects return to that level.
I don't know if I can completely fault the cast for this one, although their agents deserve a bit of a beating. The acting was decent, Eckhart became over the top as the movie continued, while Johansson and Swank seemed under utilized. The movie fell on the shoulders of Hartnett who couldn't manage to drag the lifeless movie for the entire 2 hours.
After suffering through the two hours I quickly checked to see who did this screenplay, since I found it to be the true fault of the film. It took me no less than 2 minutes to realize the error of my ways. We had none other than Josh Friedman to thank for this clunker. If you weren't sure who that was, he's the same writer that gave us the glorified crap that is "War of the Worlds". If Friedman's goal is to work with great directors like Spielberg and De Palma, only to tarnish their reputations then he is achieving that goal. Why these directors choose to work with him, baffles me, he must have friends in high places.
Despite being a very visually pleasing movie, a beautifully illustrated film noir, at times I felt that De Palma's directing faltered. Most notably a portion of the film shot in the first person, that reminded me of the Christopher Walken SNL sketch "The Continental", and actually, I would have rather watched that, since that would have at least been funny.
In all, don't waste your time. If you like other De Palma films, such as "Scarface" or "The Untouchables", go and revisit those films. I can only hope his future projects return to that level.