I saw this movie a couple of weeks back but did not immediately write my review, since too often, the initial impression movies such as this make, pale with time. In this case, iam happy to report, time doesn’t do much damage.Tony Gilroy has already proved his abilities with the “bourne” movies and ofcourse with michael clayton. If any validation was needed this movie offers it.
The movie moves back and forth in time, which appears to be a gimmick initially (Remember, similar technique was used in michael clayton). But as the movie progressed, i realized the advantage of this layered narrative in keeping the viewer glued to proceedings. A linear narrative in this case would have been character and / or action driven and that would have drained the movie of the charm and intelligence it has in its current form. (In fact the movie does not have any “Action” sequences to speak of).
And ofcourse the humor. I have always been a fan of situational and dialogue based humor rather than the slap-stick variety and so i may be biased in my judgement. I thought, the situational and dialogue humor scripted were of very high quality and added to the intelligence of the movie.
Julia Roberts and Clive Owens give fantastic performances. Above mentioned non-linear narrative ensures that neither is caricatured. Both end up bringing a lot of charm to the drama.
I cannot sustain interest in feature films that i get to see, and usually i start getting bored in the first 10 minutes of the movie. In that time, i already know the probably story line and scene sequence and start waiting for either spectacular locales or set pieces of action or random humurous lines to get through to the end.
This is one of the few movies i can say, never lost its grip on my senses through out its duration.
Final Word: Highly recommended.
