When his old friend Lee Ross arrives, Christian Bale is led into an assessment of his quiet suburban life with Emily Watson, his past, and his future.
There's a staid, contemplative air to this movie, even when Bale is wandering around a bedroom in full frontal nudity with an enticing Amanda Ryan lying naked before him, or his enchanting Parisian lover, Elsa Zylberstein. There's an air of quiet anomie about the life he leads, even as he insists he likes the little garden, the toddler daughter, and the stolid presence of Miss Watson, even in the scenes in which she plays no part. The questions of the movie are set up early in a scene with John Wood, but Bale is not a thoughtful man in this movie. He's reactive, impulsive, not given to contemplation, but ultimately... well, that's the question this movie raises.
There's a staid, contemplative air to this movie, even when Bale is wandering around a bedroom in full frontal nudity with an enticing Amanda Ryan lying naked before him, or his enchanting Parisian lover, Elsa Zylberstein. There's an air of quiet anomie about the life he leads, even as he insists he likes the little garden, the toddler daughter, and the stolid presence of Miss Watson, even in the scenes in which she plays no part. The questions of the movie are set up early in a scene with John Wood, but Bale is not a thoughtful man in this movie. He's reactive, impulsive, not given to contemplation, but ultimately... well, that's the question this movie raises.