the leading man is my tpye

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

We found this movie nearly impossible to watch. With such a super cast, it's a shame that the writing and direction were so awful. The excruciating pace at which the story was told was maddening. The flash-backs were clumsy. The characters were one-dimensional. The heavy-handed metaphors -- the river, the cat -- were repeated way too often. The movie Nobody's Fool, based on another novel by Russo, was infinitely better, probably because it was more tightly written and directed. The photography in Empire Falls was lovely. Too bad it wasn't a travelogue.I read the novel and enjoyed the writing style but had some quibbles with the novel itself. I would give the novel 4 out of 5 stars. Perhaps the screenwriters and director were so awed by the novel's reputation they felt they had to include every darn thing in their movie. This was supposed to be a television movie, guys, not Books on Tape.

Its pretty obvious that the author wrote the screenplay here... given that his pontificating prose makes the transition to the film as voice-over narration. Come to think of it... I didn't see a credit for the narrator, and I didn't recognize the goofy voice either... I wonder if this guy could possibly be THAT self-indulgent.Anyway, this movie is OK. I'd say about half the scenes are good and half are bad. It's pretty inconsistent in its level of phony-ness.It is overall an interesting and engaging story, but I think it is greatly hindered by the cheap crutch of a purely evil character.Hoffman and Robin Wright Penn were both really good in the flash backs. William Fichtner struck me as the only guy who carried his weight in the modern scenes. Dennis Farina was good, but it was a one note job.The glove box and the cat were painful.I have to say, my jaw about hit the floor when a lowered newspaper revealed Josh Lucas in a cameo as a young Paul Newman... it was a brief but unbelievable scene.

I witnessed the filming of a movie in Maine back in 1986 so was curious to see how they'd do in another town. I think they did a good job. I found myself looking as much as details as following the storyline. My only complaint is that they did not have a voice coach, or if they did, s/he had a hearing problem. While Maine has many dialects, the vowels are fairly consistent per speaker. It's rare to hear someone use START and CAHD. It's STAHT and CAHD or START and CARD. It's the inconsistencies that tend to drive the locals crazy, and there were plenty in this film.But the story was poignant, and piercingly accurate in so many ways. The flashbacks were wonderful, and they segued into the present almost seamlessly. The set and wardrobe were unassuming, as they are in real life, and that which stands out is an individual perception. Just like life.

They go where they must, not where we want them to go. With those words from this totally terrific movie, you get touched for the 1st of many times in a simple movie about simple , plain people who like the rest of us, must struggle with the things like a difficult childhood, a bad marriage, feeling like your life didn't turn out they way you would have wished and all the other things that make life the up and down adventure it is. All of the acting is first-class, as good as any film made today. However, I must single out Ed Harris, Helen Hunt and Estelle Parsons who to me deserve Oscar nominations but of course won't get one in this made-for-HBO classic. This film is almost like therapy as one might identify their own troubles with some of the characters and see how they learned to overcome their troubles. I short, this is a real throw-back to the days 40-50 years ago when classics like this were common. This is a rare film for 2005.