One of my all time favorites.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

There are several threads running through this film, rather like the more complicated Robert Altman films.Art Spindle is the dealer who attempts to swindle every one he knows. He also likes to run his hands over younger people (man or woman) in the art world.Jean and Bob Maclestone are in their prime, in some senses, but their marriage is falling apart. Bob is having an affair with Beth (Art's assistant), while Jean is dallying with the artist Jo Richards. Plus they disagree on just about every art decision. Jean drops her high heel while hiding with Jo in a men's rest room stall. Bob notices its exact shape and size, then kicks it back to her. Later she asks for a divorce, and is shocked when he agrees immediately.The older couple, Alfred and Alfreda Rhinegold, own the art work 'Boogie Woogie' which so many people want in the film. Alfred has had it for 50 years; Alfreda recognises that they are broke and need the money.Art fires Beth for moving toward starting her own business. Then Art gives Beth a party that Jean thinks is 'so moving.'Jean leaves Bob and goes to Art's place, inadvertently interrupting a liaison. Speaking of breakups, Elaine decides to break her business relationship with Dewey. As her erstwhile agent, Dewey gave her a place to live and supported her art career. Beth offers Elaine a better deal, so Elaine decides to go with Beth who wants an exclusive (business) relationship. Paige visits Jo's studio, which we see doubles as his seduction pad, particularly his 'peripheral vision' project. Paige objects, "Aren't you with Beth?"Art Spindler deals with Freign, who has Alfreda's ear, in an attempt to finesse Alfred's desire to keep the piece by Mondrian. Bob and his lawyer deal with splitting resources deal with splitting resources, while Jean and her lawyer Emille do roughly the same. That goes on for a bit too long, but seems reasonable given how much property the couple has. Well, had...the lawyers will soak up some of it. Emille gives Jean good advice, which is about the best relationship in the film. Bob attempts an end run around the process with the lawyers.Will the Mondrian get sold? Will the divorce get settled in a half way reasonable fashion? Who will get clobbered in this demolition derby?-----Scores------Cinematography: 7/10 Often outstanding, but also sometimes wretched, mostly during the hand-held phases.Sound: 10/10 Just fine.Acting: 7/10 Stellen Skarsgard, Gillian Anderson, Christopher Lee, Danny Huston, Charlotte Rampling, and Joanna Lumley were marvelous. Unfortunately, Jamie Winstone, Simon McBruney, Gemma Atkinson, Amanda Seifried, and Jack Huston were in the cast. I usually enjoy Alan Cumming's work, but not this time, not by a long shot.Screenplay: 6/10 The story was slow getting off the ground, and continued that way for too long. It picks up some speed after context is well set. I liked the ending, since it showed some story threads leading to crashes and others going on to more success.

Featuring a de-fanged Christopher Lee (in one of his final roles) as a stubborn but dying owner of a Mondrian painting worth up to $30 million, and Mulder-less Gillian Anderson (whose files here are more likely to be triple than single "X"), along with the passing of the roller skates from infamous BOOGIE NIGHTS "roller girl" Heather Graham to on-screen skating newbie Amanda Seyfried, director Duncan Ward's ensemble flick BOOGIE WOOGIE has features bound to intrigue nearly everyone. Modern art credits for movie usage include Jake & Dinos Chapman, Gary Hume, Constantin Brancusi, Banksy, Gavin Turk, Danny Moynihan, Jessica Craig Martin, Faile, Sarah Lucas, Michael Landy, Robert Gordon McHaig III, Sam Taylor-Wood, and Jim Lambie--all curated by Damien Hirst. Worth the price of admission is the verbal deconstruction of a divorcing couple's collection, including pieces by Picasso, Smith, Kelly, Judd, Flavin, Brancusi, Warhol, Beuys, Hockney, Magritte, Struth, Giacometti, Lucas, Katz, Mapplethorpe, Bacon, Emin, Currin, Landy, Hirst, Rusche, Barney, Dogan, and "the Jew in the library," accomplished through inter-cut parallel scenes between the wife and her thrice-divorced confidante, counterpointed by the conversation between the husband and his divorce lawyer. Plus there's nude chicks.

The only reason I rented Boogie Woogie is the DVD box had on it the words "Gillian Anderson" and "Strong Sexual Content". However, the fact that Agent Scully did not get naked is the least disappointing thing about this film. This movie doesn't work as a comedy. It doesn't work as a drama. It doesn't work as a dramedy or a comada or any other genre or style that you could possibly imagine. Perhaps it all makes sense if you're an aficionado of the London art scene where this story is set, but for everyone else it's like looking at a wall of Egyptian hieroglyphics. You know it's supposed to mean something but you have no idea what it is and you quickly get tired of staring at it.Like Love Actually..., this is a tale about a large cast of characters whose lives intersect. Unlike Love Actually, this one is neither funny nor touching nor remotely evocative of any other human emotion. Art Spindle (Danny Huston) is a big time art dealer and gallery owner who's been laughing a fake laugh his entire life and no longer knows how to not do it. Jean and Bob Macelstone (Gillian Anderson and Stellan Skarsgard) are a wealthy, art loving couple who live in a home that looks like the secret hideout of a Batman villain. Beth Freemantle (Heather Graham) is Art's assistant who's also working behind his back to launch her own gallery with Bob's help. Joe (Jack Huston) is a young artist who is banging Beth and quickly becomes the boy toy of Jean.Continuing on, Dewey (Alan Cumming) is a hanger on in the art world who walks Jean and Bob's dogs and ineffectually manages the career of Elaine (Jaime Winstone), an edgy video artist who turns everything she points her camera at into part of her work. There's also Alfred Rhinegold (Christopher Lee), a sick old man who owns a legendary painting that Art lusts after, and Alfred's wife and butler (Joanna Lumley and Simon McBurney), who are pressuring him to sell it. Paige Prideaux (Amanda Seyfried) is a young girl who falls down and has a parasitic twin living inside her. Oh, and the entire cast of the 70s TV show "The White Shadow" also show up and play a charity basketball game. Yeah, I'm kidding about that but sweetness and light! There are far too many people in this lackluster motion picture.I'm not going to go into any more of the plot because, honest to goodness, I don't understand it. I could follow along but I could never figure out what was supposed to be funny and what was intended to be serious and when it was being satirical and when it was trying to be earnest. Watching Boogie Woogie is like listening to a stranger tell you about the funny thing that happened one time at his place of work and you don't know any of the people involved in the story or what's funny about it. There's a point where it is revealed that a character is gay and the reaction to that revelation clearly indicates that it's supposed to be a big deal…but I don't have slight slightest clue why that character being gay would be a big deal and whether I was meant to be surprised, shocked or amused by it.Now there is some nudity here, though none of it involves Gillian Anderson, and there's more than enough talented and capable actors doing their level best with this script. The movie is also reasonably well directed and effectively paced. The only problem with Boogie Woogie is it's incomprehensible.If you spent a summer interning at a London art gallery, you might be able to might sense of this thing. I could have watched it in reverse and it wouldn't have made much difference. Oh, and if you do want to see Gillian Anderson get naked, go rent a film called Closure. She looks good and the movie's not that bad.

First of all, I have never read the book; this review is based purely on a number of viewings of the film.Reasons to like this film:1. Simon McBurney (Robert Freign). The only character worth caring about, mainly because he does not have a lot to say.Reasons to dislike it (or at least, reasons I was disappointed):1. The characters, apart from covering a good range of stereotypes, are insufferably pretentious, irritating and unsympathetic (in particular the characters of Beth, Art and Jo). From start to finish I could not bring myself to care what happened to them. Everyone is gay or lesbian, everyone is sleeping with at least two different people at any one time, and everyone is either a rich art dealer/buyer or a struggling "artist". It gets boring very quickly.2. The script reads like a check-list of clichés. Lines and situations are casually thrown in without, it seems, even an attempt at originality. An example is a scene that takes place in a posh restaurant. Two of the richer characters are served by a "foreign" (read Eastern European) waitress who does not understand, conveniently setting it up for the lines: "What is that? Hungarian?" -- "Polish, I think". The entire screenplay feels forced, contrived and timeworn.The storyline, while it appears to be making a clear point - to wit, "the art world" is shallow and requires a hard heart to handle it - does little more than go around in circles repeating the same message in an all too obvious way.3. It seems as though the creators were unsure about whether to make the film in a documentary style or otherwise, and got stuck somewhere in the middle. Therefore the film feels disjointed, as if whole chunks of action and repetitive dialogue were filmed and then thrown together in a random order.All in all it is disappointing, because one look at the cast for this film - while the subject matter might have been interesting and dramatic if better handled - and you would be forgiven for assuming that Boogie Woogie ought to be better. Unfortunately, a choice cast is completely wasted.