First lets start off with the good:
The bad:
Overall, I found myself feeling like Rick Groen of the globe summed this movie up the best saying: "Ultimately, Detachment invites us to feel precisely what it warns against, detached." I enjoy curling up with a tub of ice cream and feeling depressed about life as much as the next person. However, I need my movies to be the whole package if they are going to take me there. Here about halfway through I found myself wanting to skip ahead some scenes because they were boring me. Indeed I felt a little detached.
Want to watch something that deals with similar subject matter yet doesn't overdress it? Watch HBO's series "The Wire" with a 9.5 rating on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/
- Cast: Wow, great cast...Adrian Brody, Christina Hendricks, Bryan Cranston, James Caan, Lucy Liu.
- Acting: I generally like Adrian Brody. He is perfectly cast for this part. Generally there is nothing to complain about regarding any of the acting in the movie. Very well done.
- Dialogue: Good dialogue is important. Especially for a movie like this which is entirely character driven. Adrian gives some nice moving speeches and James Caan has some quite witty humorous lines. Overall, the dialogue is good.
- Vision: The creators of the movie were trying to create a movie that showed the reality of hopelessness in struggling urban school environments. I understand the 'detachment' they are trying to convey and applaud them for trying not to dress it up to much with a Hollywood tale. However, there are some problems with the execution of the vision which leads me to...
The bad:
- Script: If a strong script is important to you: avoid this movie. The story relies on sucking you in to the emotional performances of the characters to create its meaning.
- Poor directing/Tries to hard: Unfortunately, many of the scenes are a little over the top. In its attempt to make us feel we witness scene after scene of extreme behavior. The chance to connect with the subtle emotions of real life drama are lost and we are caught up in a melodrama. The movie tries hard to make you "FEEL" something. Its a little like a sales pitch for sadness. I found myself getting annoyed at certain moments like I was in a live showing of Dave Letterman and the audience 'laugh' sign pops up to tell you what to do only here its this is your cue to "feel this _____ emotion".
Overall, I found myself feeling like Rick Groen of the globe summed this movie up the best saying: "Ultimately, Detachment invites us to feel precisely what it warns against, detached." I enjoy curling up with a tub of ice cream and feeling depressed about life as much as the next person. However, I need my movies to be the whole package if they are going to take me there. Here about halfway through I found myself wanting to skip ahead some scenes because they were boring me. Indeed I felt a little detached.
Want to watch something that deals with similar subject matter yet doesn't overdress it? Watch HBO's series "The Wire" with a 9.5 rating on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/