An average movie

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick since some loved it (Roger Ebert) and some didn’t like it at all (Xanadon’t) but I was still eager to check it out anyway. Eventually, even though I enjoyed most of it, I can’t say it was really good though. The first issue, in my opinion, considering its rather short running time (just a little bit more than 80 minutes), I thought there were way too many supporting characters (Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker, Jenna Fischer, Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Olivia Thirlby) and none of those characters were properly developed. Basically, for most of them, they would show up once really randomly, and then once again only when was required by the script. Furthermore, I thought the scenes came the one after the other rather randomly. For example, at first, you see the main character at the doctor and then, you move 6 years later but it was rather difficult to find the connection (of course, it was explained eventually but it was far from being really convincing). I also found it rather exaggerated that when the main character has finally hit bottom, he goes to work at a dinner with his friend, you would think ‘Ok, the guy has messed up but he is now starting all over from scratch’ but, no, it doesn’t end there and he finally gets beat up for some rather dubious reasons. So, it was honestly rather poorly written but, like I said before, I still enjoyed most of it. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for Michael Douglas, especially when he plays this kind of fast talking oversexed sleaze. In fact, he even gave here one of his best performances. Indeed, he managed to give his character many layers and, eventually, even though the guy is basically a worthless and very destructive sex addict, he is also very charming and fun to be around. To conclude, even though the whole thing is actually a failure, I still think it is worth a look especially if you have a weak spot for Michael Douglas.

6/10