A Few Days in September (2006) Reviews

Honestly, I have never heard of this movie before and, if I recall correctly, I ended up watching it just because it was on the TV. Apparently, it was Santiago Amigorena’s directing debut. Once again, to be honest, I have never heard of this guy before but apparently it is a guy from Argentina who built up a career as a screenwriter (‘Upside Down’, ‘Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)’, ‘Bon plan’, ‘Peut-être’, ‘Post coïtum animal triste’) and Juliette Binoche was with him at the time which would explain her involvement in this movie. Anyway, I thought it was not bad at all. Basically, it is a spy movie but something completely different than James Bond or Jason Bourne. Indeed, there was not much action here and the whole thing was more about some obscure characters who seem to be some spies dealing with some osbcure business. I make it sound rather cryptic and it is exactly how the movie was and it was its major appeal but also its major flaw. Indeed, on one hand, I enjoyed this different approach but, on the other hand, very often, I had no idea what was going on and it was rather frustrating. Still, the directing was solid and there was a very nice cast (Juliette Binoche, John Turturro, Nick Nolte). To conclude, even though the whole thing was rather flawed, I thought it was an original spy feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Elliot (Nick Nolte) disappears and warns of a danger, which soon enough seems to be linked to possible attacks on the US soil. (Today this "danger" is known as September 11.) A friend of Elliot's (Juliette Binoche), Elliot's estranged daughter and his wife's son do their best to avoid an odd assassin (John Turturro), and do as they are told in order to come to a final meeting with Elliot, who eventually tell them what is going on and why he is being chased.

The story was promising, although certainly very unoriginal. Unfortunately the movie is boring, way too slow, and the dialogue is one of the worst ever. Very bad script with ridiculous characters.
The actors look like they're reading parts, not playing any roles. Turturro's character was a joke. A poet assassin??? Give me a break.
The director is obviously a dilettante and his out-of-focus shots really got on my nerves.
And this is a thriller??? I think not. It's not even a comedy, or a drama. It's truly a third-rate crappy motion picture, that shouldn't have been made.

On imdb, some people mentioned that this was similar to Pulp Fiction. Seriously, I fail to see the resemblance. In any area.

It's too bad I didn't bother researching the movie before renting it, I certainly would have stayed far away from it, but the dvd cover and resume made it look interesting - it wasn't in the least bit!

My opinion: Don't bother either in time nor money with this piece of crap.