Sadly Over-hyped

One of my all time favorites.

A lot of fun.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I can't enjoy the movie because it is so stupid. I can't believe this movie is realistic at all. As is so typical of movies, there are some legal details that we are supposed to just ignore that I can't.I watched nearly all of it but it just kept getting worse until it became so tragic that I refuse to watch any more. If you feel cheated by movies that start sweet and then slowly become sour then totally ugly then this is that kind of movie.Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) is so sweet. I won't say anything about the horrible things that she either does or has done to her but the beginning is very misleading. I have never noticed Jennifer Connelly before but I sure notice her in this movie.Ben Kingsley does an excellent job of playing a man that deserves disgust. His character is Persian in this movie and you might not mind that he has also played an Indian (Gandhi) but that distracts from the movie for me.

This is a tragedy of such scope that all the main characters either die, are imprisoned (with long time), or are left broken. The protagonist, Colonel Behrani, and the antagonist, Kathy, were locked in a conflict that evoked some sympathy for both, but an immature and impulsive County Deputy, with carnal motive, hijacks the plot and steers it toward horror. I stopped watching about three-fourths the way through, and then I thought there must be some coming twist in the plot, so I went back and watched to the end, with no relief to unmitigated downward spiral. Kingsley was riviting, but all things considered, I wish I had not wasted two hours on this movie.

This is as high as I can rate a show I'm not going to re-watch. There's nothing here that is particularly good.This show has some nice eye candy and very little else. The story is OK but it lacks any real kick to it. I guess it's a must see for the cinematically pretentious.

Dark story of two tragic characters and a catalyst for disaster. I don't think that many of the posters on the site recognized that the two men in the movie, Lester and Behrani are actually bookends to some degree because they seem to be narcissists who want their own way, regardless. Lester throws away his wife and kids in order to get the woman he wants (at least for the time being) and Behrani strikes his wife when she dares question the ethics of selling a home for three times what he paid for it. Both men rely heavily on the appearance of power, and dare anyone to get in their way. They will not even listen to their wives or girlfriend, as they think they know best. Behrani is the wiser one, as he knows that power doesn't only come from the firearm carried, but from a brave heart. Everyone in the story underestimates the other and judges on appearances alone. Behrani sees Kathy simply as a reckless and overly emotional woman, without realizing that she has suffered a loss and is combating alcoholism. Kathy and Lester see an immigrant who takes advantage of a situation to jack up prices, when Behrani just wants to restore his family to their previous great fortune. Behrani realizes too late that appearances and money mean nothing when your own child is lost. Behrani, the narcissist, will cause the death of his own wife rather than admit his failures in protecting their child. Lester realizes, too late, that 'having the eyes of a child' as Behrani says, will cause you to throw everything away for an uncertain future. All are headstrong characters on a road to destruction in order to get what they want. Kathy sits perched, like a succubus, high above the tragic action.Is she a victim or a villain? The only wrong note in the film was how Behrani's wife would climb the outdoor steps in her doped up state? Otherwise a dark but thought provoking film, similar to American Beauty in its depiction of the dark side of the American Dream, and the tragedy of not truly understanding, but believing that you do.