Brilliant and touching

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

It might be hard to believe this story if it wasn't true. For the record, I'd never heard of any of this until I watched this, nor have I read the book. I cannot comment on how close this stays to the actual events. I understand that this is a comedy, and I suppose I can see how some, maybe even most, would find it funny. Not a single thing made me crack a hint of a smile in this, but then again, I do not have a great tolerance for unbelievably irritating and obnoxious women, and apart from this featuring that one from According to Jim who's being so is her sole "joke"(not that that show has a lot of hilarity going on anyway... I digress), the lead is also portraying one such individual. I don't blame the actress. In fact, let's clear that up right away: The performances are spot-on, everyone is credible, and Davis does marvelous. I would guess that the behavior is close to that of the real Sante, and *she* is the one I have the real beef with. The plot is interesting enough, and well-told. Pacing is good. The editing and cinematography are nice. This holds mild violence, disturbing content and a little sexuality. I recommend this to those who like films about con artists. 7/10

Jonathan Jackson was the best thing about the movie. Judy Davis had the showier role, but it was Jackson who drew me in. Kenny's arc, from a teenager who tried to rebel against his mother but failed, to a young killer, to a broken man too pretty to last in jail, to a hardened prisoner finally coming out from under his mother's thumb, was epic. And Jackson's subtle, powerful performance actually made me feel empathy for what in reality is a convicted murderer. Now that's good acting.This kid is impressive. He led me through Kenny's transformation, from his rebellion to his capitulation and despair, and then to his rebirth into a killer, and final transformation into becoming a man, in a sense, by separating himself from his mother. The human and weirdly Oedipal undertones in this movie were fascinating.I enjoyed it.

I can't believe some of the comments already written about this movie - raging on and on and on about Judy Davis's performance as though she had invented ice cream and found the cure for cancer.Judy Davis's performance is awful, and the movie is even worse.It's funny how so many comments to date talk about Judy Davis channeling Judy Garland - the one and only role Ms. Davis ever got right. Otherwise, her performance in this movie, as in so many others, is one-dimensional and SCREECHING.If you want to truly understand the story of the deadly Kimes, please check out the wonderful TV version that was made in 2001 - starring Mary Tyler Moore. Instead of screeching - Moore's performance is brilliant, understated, and classy.The other problem with this version is the horrible, dumbed-down script. Honestly, having people who knew the Kimes stand in front of the camera and talk about their experiences with them is truly the bottom of the barrel - creative-wise - but I guess for viewers out there who don't want a sophisticated story, and who don't want to think (i.e. they just want the story "told to them") then this movie is for them!

I love Judy Davis in almost anything she does, and absolutely was blown away by her performance in "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows" a few years ago. And while I wasn't sure if it was necessary to re-tell this story that was done in 2001 with Mary Tyler Moore called "Like Mother Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes" which was not a bad TV movie, this version was done well enough that it is a different kind of movie.And as much as I love Judy, I felt like I was watching Judy Garland do this role, sort of like she was channeling Judy Garland playing Sante Kimes. It was totally watchable though, even though knowing it's a true story (at least the facts of the story) make it all the more interesting to watch. I should have taped it though (yes, I'm still in the VCR world occasionally,) because I cannot stand the incessant and never-ending commercials on Lifetime...