Insomniacker

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Does the world need another cinematic stylist whose visual talent is exceeded by his capacity to bore audiences. How about some storytelling basics? I mistakenly bought into reviewers' claim that this was somehow a companion piece to Altman's "Long Goodbye" and, once again, found myself staring at my watch. After this empty exercise and "The Master," I am off PT Anderson for good.

My enthusiasm for Chris Rock's stand-up did not survive his transition to filmmaker. I usually need a few dramatic events to drag me along on a character's journey, but nothing happens in this movie for an hour! The only surprise was that "Top Five" wasn't funny either. So what's the idea behind it all? An interview on a walking tour of Manhattan? Seriously?

A musical turd. How'd they manage to make the Grimm Brothers boring? Plot contrivances galore and the obligatory interruption of story momentum for musical numbers that tell you how a character feels. Mashing up several fairy tales is a conceit, not a story.

How can you compress a fascinating five hour story--I'm referring to the original BBC adaptation--into two plus hours and come up with a film that feels turgid? It may not be fair to compare this version to the superior BBC mini-series, but they seem to have gone out of their way to take the urgency out of their mole hunt. By only allowing us to see the mole candidates in brief cameos, we never feel grounded in the search. And that makes the ultimate revelation a "so-what." It became an elegantly photographed film comprised of a bunch of obtusely connected sequences with little to hold it together. As a Le Carre fan, I looked forward to seeing this, and I'm not saying it's terrible' but I went home feeling disappointed.

The spine in this relentlessly episodic story is Barney's penchant for booze-soaked bad behavior. If only it were interesting booze-soaked bad behavior. I mean, I'll forgive a bad boy his flaws but Giamatti's got nothing to play except his character's desire to escape the scenes he's in. I had the same problem. If, like me, you're attracted by the talents of Mordecai Richler and Paul Giamatti, prepare yourselves for two hours and twenty minutes of disappointment, paper-thin characters, tedious histrionics and amateurish plot contrivances.

A good movie that had two serious false notes. 1) It portrayed Micky Ward, a boxer who in reality was always willing to go toe-to-toe with his opponents, as a defenseless punching bag. The only conceivable reason was to manipulate the audience into worrying about him. 2) The Cambodian **** character didn't look remotely strung out. Not only was she gorgeous, she looked healthier than anybody in the theatre.