Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Simply Perfect

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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

I have read Infinite Jest, and am a fan of David Foster Wallace's work. Rather than making the obvious Book>Movie comment, I would like to comment on where it worked and where it didn't. DFW, for me, brings to mind the haunting descriptions of melancholy missing from the movie(Though John Krasinski does a decent job in his monologue, surprisingly.) The editing, though true to the style in the book to a certain extent, could have been better on screen.DFW's linguistic talents and extensive vocabulary are retained throughout the movie, which makes it seem unreal(DFW does a great job of separating his voice from that of his characters, I feel). This leads to a strange sequence with the man speaking of his father which is strange to watch.The movie suffers from trying to be a bit too true to the book, but not really knowing how to. There are a few intense scenes reminiscent of DFW's style, but can't really hold the whole movie together.All in all, I wouldn't call the movie a waste of time, but I'd recommend DFW's books anyway.

I'm sorry, but this was the most self-absorbed, void of emotion movie I've every seen. Monologues were WAY too long and had NOTHING to do with the supposed subject and story of the movie. It felt like it was drama written for drama's sake by a Yale lit major. The idea was worthwhile (but didn't deliver any message), and some of the editing was very good and interesting, but it was so jumbled in it's presentation, that I have no idea what I'm supposed to extract from this.I couldn't wait for it to end and shuffled through the gentlemen going on and on about his father's job and through Krasinski's over-detailed description of the hippie girl's rape. It all felt like psychiatric deflection to me. And our protagonist said NOTHING. This movie wasn't about anyone or anything. I've not read any of the author's books, but somehow I can't believe the book had so little to say.

This film has, as the director John Krasinski put himself, strong indie influences. The non-chronological time-line, the frequent cuts between scenes, the overlapping of events...I think this is perhaps some of the reason why it receives such conflicting reviews. Every person has a subjective experience of every film and mine was, bluntly, that I was blown away. As I just pointed out, the chronology of events is completely out of whack, and while reviews of the film point it out as a weakness, I think it's a strength. It makes you focus on what's going on and to really pay attention to it, and it's rewarding when you do. There is so much depth in this story, or rather series of stories, that their sparsity and seeming lack of coherence is a statement in itself. Pretentious sounding statement followed by pseudo-profound insight. I know. But I think it's true. There are four distinct episodes in the film that are in my mind the strongest, and are my four favourite - so watch out for them! They are as follows: 1. The episode featuring Christopher Meloni and Denis O'Toole. Meloni tells a story about a girl he met in an airport, and the end of the scene is superbly acted out as far as I'm concerned. 2. Subject #42 and his father. It's an emotional thing to watch, the generation gap between these two men, and yet how fiercely they love each other, though they don't say it. I know it's kitsch and an overused plot line, but I think it's acted out so realistically that it ceases to be cheesy but instead very moving. 3. The storyline concerning Dominic Cooper's character, Daniel, who wrote his paper on how sexual assaults can sometimes be character building - making clear that of course the assault is awful at the time, but afterwards, the person can become stronger and use that experience to build up their strength and sense of self. The scenes which follow are an almost schizophrenic stream of consciousness as we see Daniel in four different places - Sara's office, the function room, the café, steps on the college campus - but having one monologue which remains uninterrupted except for the change of scene. The monologue gets more and more frenzied as the plot begins to unravel and the climax is heart-breaking. Concomitant with all of this is one or two clips of previously seen footage and all the while there is some kind of rock music playing which, when I first watched the film, seemed completely out of sync, but now I think perhaps that was the point. It makes Daniel's monologue even more uncomfortable and heart-wrenching. 4. The monologue that is the ultimate climax of the film, spoken by Ryan, the character played by John Krasinski.You should watch this film and see what I'm talking about. It's well worth it.

Walking into the cinema, I didn't know what to expect. I'd read David Foster Wallace's book years ago and I enjoy The Office (Particularly Krasinski's performance) but I was doubtful the two would be able to cross over successfully. While I certainly will say that I was wrong, there are quite a few flaws that the movie has. First off, certain aspects of the film felt undeveloped. From the book, I realized that she'd asked a question before each interview that we weren't able to hear, but in this for the uninitiated you were expected to rely on various lines scattered across the movie to solve it all. Secondly, Julianne Nicholson, while an interesting character felt undeveloped (Which I understand was the purpose of the movie, for her to be disconnected) but other than her, there weren't any other characters for the audience to grasp onto and truly connect with (One of the key rules of all movies: That you should allow the audience to quickly gain an emotional connection with the character from their back story and not simply rely on it from the point that they're the main character) Other than those minor viewpoints though, I must say that I was impressed with Krasinski's debut and with such a difficult source material he did a fine job and I have certainly gained respect for him. I would advise this movie perhaps for watching and re-watching in an attempt to understand the movie entirely and all of its little subtleties.