Very Cool!!!

Too much of everything

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Loved the tone and mood of the movie at first. But it's a sub-optimal direction from Clint Eastwood. Looks like characters know many 'little things' beforehand to pave the way to solve the case. Eastwood did a bad job. But not as bad as the Oscar board.

The movie is full suspense till the end. You are in for big surprise in the end. I will read the book that this movie is based on for sure. All the actors should be applauded for acting . the part which confused me is Why tim robbins wn an Oscar for this movie ? He was way better in shawshank redemption. Sean penn's acting was way better , as he was portrayng muI ltiple characters on his level. If you watch this movie for crime thriller , you are going to be disappointed for sure. This movie is something more than that. Tim robbin's character brought on himself whatever it is. The movie is twisted because , they have twisted evidence the way they wanted it to be. Confusion is the last parade scene. I was looking for some kind of twist from tim robbin's wife character . but it was nothing. No explanation. That's why normal audience will hate the movie. One thing is certain , The movie is open for interpretation . One time watch for sure.

The incredible potency of Eastwood's visual metaphysics (see how the camera so often in his work hovers from above like some perverted God's eyeview that watches but never interferes) meets the substantial (both existential and political) crosscutting (the aesthetic breakthrough of this entry of his) of children/adults perpetually engulfed in their sins. The nightmarish web is further complexed by the no less than four females of the story (and the ghosts of two more, adding to an amazing number of characters for a 138-minute film), building a challenging case of a feminist, anti-feminist and tragedy-like reading of the impossibly dense text. Eastwood dialectics at their most complete - even though perfection is a breath away due to the mechanics of a couple of male performances.

The plot is twisted and implausible to the point where the movie becomes boring and disappointing. I find no trace of sanity or nobility, no beauty, no hint of redemption for any of the characters throughout a movie that unsuccessfully attempts to be profound and originally dramatic.But it's impossible to admire any of the characters, and the ones that perhaps may deserve compassion, are treated unjustly, disrespectfully and grotesquely. Indeed there is something repulsive and disquietingly grotesque behind the moral premises of the story. One perhaps could forgive the inadequacy of such amorality in a story where haphazardness looks plausible, natural, spontaneous and uncontrived. But in such an absurd and unbelievable story one can only conclude that the dramatist is sick, or perhaps just gullibly read too much of Nietzsche.