This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
To it's credit, I was never bored with this. The leads are both pretty terrific, it starts off with some promise, and it does look nice (whoever decided to announce it was shot on 35mm via a title card needs a stern talking to). But it's half-assed attempts at cleverness, masturbatory pretentiousness, and severally questionable sexual and gender politics make me question how the hell this got any sort of attention in the festival circuit.
Frontloads itself with questions of…
Doing this one no favors by watching it the day after The Bridges of Madison County but even still, this is mostly nothing. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it a pleasant watch though. The pace is too fast and the actors too committed for me to hate it. Although, in the former's case, I wish they let off the gas a bit more so we could actually learn anything substantive about the characters that may actual lend some larger weight to the romance and sadness of it all.
Philosophically bankrupt in the worst possible way. Von Trier doesn't care about making movies, he cares about getting reactions and spewing pseudo-philosophical dribble about life being hard and how there's no point to anything. Make those points, but do it well and don't beat me over the head with it. The way Von Trier does it is the same way a 14 year old who's just been introduced to Nietzsche would - by complaining about the hardships of life and…
I relate to Adam Sandler's character so much so that it makes me genuinely uncomfortable.
