Really, there's not much to complain about other than what seems minor, but really, in cases such as these, minor missteps can make quite a bit of difference. The film's central relationship is one built on one-sided genuine romantic and one-sided ulterior motivation (And women call us men pigs) that soon finds itself battled back by ensuing emotional attachment (Okay, I guess you gals aren't all that bad), and that is a potentially engrossing relationship that's presented in a workmanlike fashion, though one that doesn't quite bite as deeply as it should, which is something that you can say about a lot of aspects in this film, as Armstrong is clearly comfortable with his own vision to the point to rendering his vision's execution a touch awkward and too workmanlike for the third party, thus leaving such other missteps as more than a couple of cliches to be brought more to attention. One of the most notable aspects that Armstrong slips up on is the key chemistry between Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones, for although our leads are strong enough for you to feel some sense of moderate spark, Armstrong doesn't entirely breathe enough romance in the air for you to fully lock into the relationship, let alone its complexities. Again, the film is lively in both writing and production, but when it comes to atmosphere, while the direction doesn't severely contradict the livliness of the film's production and writing to the point of rendering the final bland middling and bland, Gillian Armstrong doesn't spark up this film as much as he should, for although the film's being produced and structured in a mostly entertaining fashion obviously graces the effort with a certain fair degree of engagement value, Armstrong doesn't draw enough juice from the film's substance to keep engagement value consistent, let alone to deliver on things that he seriously needs to deliver on. The film has been deemed dull by many, and quite frankly, I disagree to a certain extent, surprised to find that the film is consistently eventful, if not pretty entertaining, which I suppose leaves this film to stand as a testament to the idea that engagement value and entertainment value don't always go hand-in-hand. Of course, let's not seal up the borders quite yet, because there are plenty of foreigners who do so well at other accents, among other things when it comes to acting, as this film further proves, which isn't to say that the talents behind the world of movie magic can make this film's faults disappear. ![]() ![]() Well, outside of the US, I suppose that any country will find it difficult to find a talented performer who isn't working internationally under a different accent, because the modern film industry has more foreigners pretending to be a part of the culture they've been hired into than Texas. Either she's the Katharine Hepburn of the IFTAs or Ireland seriously needs to get better performers domestically if they're having to stretch to their Irish talents' international work, in which they don't even stay Irish. Shoot, she just claimed her fifth IFTA in a row, so I don't know if anything can stop her, except maybe "City of Ember", and even then, she still won Best "Supporting" Actress of 2008 for this film. Well, in all fairness, it is Saoirse Ronan, and Scottish really is the closest she's gotten to Irish, yet that didn't stop her from winning at the Irish Film and Television Award. ![]() As if it wasn't difficult enough to tell the difference between the English and Australians, they go off and co-produce a film together, and as if it wasn't difficult enough to tell the difference between the Scottish and Irish (Seriously, where did the distinctly Scottish growl go?), they actually went out and got an Irish to play Scottish. Forget Houdini, this film itself is real magic, because it made cultural distinctions disappear into thin air.
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