Reviews

The movie was fabulous until the butchered ending.

I would have given it 10 stars until the last 10 minutes when it dropped to 0 for being completely incompatible with the novel and painfully bad too watch all in itself. Some reviews here seem unfamiliar with the novel so I just want to stress that Dickens is not to blame for that ending.

Still, the movie is well worth watching because everything else is brilliant especially Jean Simmons, Alec Guiness and above all Martita Hunt as the very memorable Miss Havisham. As far as casting an older actor as Pip, I think it was understandable and less distracting than rotating too many actors over time.

The movie was so powerful I wondered if things would be better if every corporate executive and politician got to watch it.

The movie asserted the importance of treating all people decently without any artificial speeches or distracting overdramatization.

Considering that union leaders can be just as flawed and self-serving as any corporate executive, it was inspiring to learn that Arnoux is a real life labor activist in addition to her role here. Some of the best moments (in addition to the father-son relationship) showed how she could quickly forgive people for treating her unfairly in order to work with them for the common good, and how she reached out to the father in a painful moment instead of being absorbed in her own agenda.

This movie was not funny because of its poor treatment of the subject matter.

It would be difficult to make a funny movie about the KKK and, without trivializing the evil of the KKK, romantic obsessions have killed a lot more people. Better movies like Strangers on a Train succeed at depicting killing your spouse because comic moments are balanced with an authentic appreciation of the horror.

Also horrifying, is the number of people who think this movie had a positive message and think the real life couple enjoyed a happy ending. Trying to kill someone is not a sign of love but of selfish attachment. As Gloria Steinem said: love is wanting the best for another person, romance is just wanting the other person.

The subplot about the low budget theatre would have made a great comedy.

There were some very funny moments especially with the theatre manager and the actor who wanted Buck for a neighbor.

Unfortunately the main story line was not especially funny or frightening.

Chuck's wife seemed nice but boring; and Chuck and Buck were just boring.

And the movie was so unpleasant to look at that it was difficult to endure.

There were good performances by Robin Williams and others but the movie was dull overall and very disappointing compared to the positive reviews.

I thought Sy might become a serial killer who bores people to death: a forlorn guy in ugly clothes trails his victims around food courts, quoting Oprah and reciting his medical history until they beg him to shoot them.

I think the movie mostly appeals to egomaniacs who think strangers are interested in their photos. I expect most retail workers want a break from the customers.

I was surprised to like this movie so much because I usually don't like Meg Ryan and was put off by the subject matter. But it was a very intelligent and sensitive portrayal of their relationship. Contrary to many comments here, the movie was very clear about her many good qualities while also showing the negative side of her condition. And I like Al Franken all the more for knowing he took part in this great script.

And I'd much rather be friends and neighbors with the Meg Ryan character - sober or drinking - rather than the miscreant with the space weapon noises car alarm. There's at least 2 of them on my block and the police refuse to do anything so I may buy the movie just so I can revel in that scene over and over.

This movie was so horrible and biased it almost made HMOs seem sympathetic.

Among the dumbest moments: not showing the downside to shutting down a city emergency room for the day, and an outrageously callous hospital administrator who then breaks down and cries over one dying child (so the rest of the ICU patients had all been faking?).

But the worst failure was reinforcing the real problem of people just mindlessly complaining about not having open-ended access to health care without any consideration of how to pay for it. The only constructive action was the heart surgeon who waived his fee at the outset but he still got portrayed as a villain apparently for wearing a nice suit.

The movie reminded me again of the worldwide suffering caused by insane drug laws.

It's reassuring to see so many reviewers have a positive attitude about the suffering and sacrifice demonstrated in this movie but chilling to see those reviewers who lacked compassion for these characters. While Traffic was probably a more entertaining movie, I thought the message here was much more positive.

I was especially horrified by the father who taunted his daughter's friend about being in prison. And there was nothing racist about the movie given similar horrors in U.S. 3 strikes laws and the movie's positive depiction of several characters including one Thai prison guard and lawyer.

The movie's nasty message was so depressing it was a relief to see so many comments here criticizing the misogyny. Among many low points is an attractive accomplished woman claiming her life was miserable because she didn't get married younger. Any attempts at humor fail by being stretched out unbearably including a scene making Hepburn look like a stereotype of ignorance in the kitchen. As bad are ridiculous scenes that go to the extremes of showing Hepburn cruel to orphans and unwilling to spare a full minute for her wedding.

After enduring the excessive length, I got to the "dramatic" ending and imagined what DeNiro's lame last line would be - and a "suspenseful" minute later he said it. The opportunity to have Pacino and DeNiro in one movie and on opposite sides so you root for both was spoiled by idiotic dialogue, female characters so stereotyped I kept hoping it was a joke, romances lacking all credibility and a billion supporting characters and subplots that go nowhere.